Divine Creation and Initiation
by Benjamin Rowe
Copyright 1992 by Benjamin Rowe

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Divine Creation and Initiation

                               
                               
                               
                       Ŀ
                        Receive Divine 
 ĳ     Force      Ŀ
                                
                                                  
                                                  
    Ŀ                           Ŀ
     ExpressionĴ Conformation
     in Action                                Cycle    
                               
          
          
                     Ŀ
          ĳ   Complete    
                       Manifestation 
                      
 


     Figure 1. Cycle of Divine Creation and of Initiation

The Process of Divine Creation

In the largest context, an individual's initiation does not occur in
isolation. Rather, it is a single thread in the continuing act of divine
creation. The full intent of the creator is only worked out through a
multiplicity of such threads, linked through energetic resonance into a
quasi-biological whole. I use the word "biological" deliberately; the
logic of spiritual interrelations is indeed "bio-logic", the logic of
living things, but tremendously expanded and generalized.

The relation between the creator and the initiates who respond to the
act of creation has strong correspondences to the relation between our
conscious selves and the cells in our bodies, though the former relation
is not so limited as the latter. We can gain an understanding of the
larger process by reference to its microcosmic analogue.

Each cell in our bodies contains in essence the information needed to
create the whole. But the cell is not the whole, nor is any given cell
versatile enough to switch places with any other cell in the body. A
liver cell remains a liver cell, even if implanted in the heart. A brain
cell remains a brain cell, even if moved to the genitals. Each cell is a
particularization of a range of potentials out of the vastly greater
range inherent in the genetic material it contains.

Just so, each individual contains within himself the essence of the
entire universe of which he or she is a part. "Man is a microcosm", the
saying goes. But clearly the individual is not the universe; he is
contained within it, both objectively and subjectively. Equally clearly,
no two individuals are interchangeable, no matter how much the
philosophically shortsighted would wish to make it so. Each is a
particularization in time and space of the effectively infinite
potential of the universe at large.

When a conscious entity decides to take a particular action, the process
by which the intent is effectuated proceeds in four overall stages:

1. Appearance of the intent in consciousness.

2. Transmission of the intent along neuronic paths to the various parts
of the body.

3. Modification of the behavior of individual cells in response to the
transmitted signals.

4. The effectuation of the intent in the form of some sort of action.

Between stages one and two there is a gap; in some way not understood by
either philosophers or scientists, the singular intent of the being
becomes transformed into the multitude of signals necessary to direct
the action of the body. No one knows exactly how this transformation is
performed, only that it does occur. While many different explanations
have been put forth, the evidence to date is insufficient to resolve the
issue.

The process by which divine intent is made manifest follows four similar
stages:

1. The appearance of the divine ideal which is to be made manifest.

2. The response of a group of adepts to that ideal, and the creation of
a group of iconic or symbolic thought-forms to act as link between the
ideal and the lower worlds.

3. Apprentices sensing the transmitted intent and unconsciously or
consciously modifying their individual patterns of thought to conform to
it. They act on these thoughts within the mundane world,  producing

4. The final manifestation of the ideal in time and space. 

The divine ideal, while wholly unitary, has three aspects when perceived
by a conscious entity: Its Note, or initial impulse, its Intent or Will
expression, and the active Vibrations by which it can be successfully
manifested. Mages of different degrees are identified with one or more
of these aspects, and through their identification are able to create a
condition under which the ideal can be sense by adepts.1

As in the previous case there is an apparent gap between the first and
second steps in this sequence, which is called the "Abyss" in magickal
parlance. It is difficult to describe how this gap is perceived by a
mage without resorting to mystic jargon that may ultimately be
meaningless to anyone except another mage. One can speak glibly of
"being" and "becoming", and leave the reader no better informed than
before.2

Another way of looking at the matter is to say that at each stage of
this fourfold process of creation, an additional quality is added to the
archetypality of the divine ideal, elaborating on its nature and
creating manifestations having both greater specificity and greater
multiplicity than the original.

As perceived on its own level by a mage, the divine ideal is complete,
unitary, and self-sufficient. It simply is, with no apparent beginning
or end. It neither acts nor is acted upon. It appears so nearly
universal and encompassing that even the possibility that something
exists which is not "what it is" practically disappears.

When the conditions created by the mages cause the divine ideal to be
brought down into the second stage - "below the Abyss" - the quality of
relatedness is added to its archetypality. The ideal no longer appears
to exist simply in itself, but now is perceived in relation to something
which is not itself. This simple addition of the potential for
relationship brings about a shocking transformation; shocking because it
is not just a change from one-thing-in-itself to one-thing-in-relation-
to-one-other-thing. Rather the change is from absolute unity directly to
infinite multiplicity. In the act of crossing the Abyss, the mage or
adept goes from one extreme of existence to the other with no
intermediate stages. It is as if one took a single step and found
oneself at the other end of the universe.

The existence of two things demands the existence of a third thing; the
existence of a third demands a fourth, and so on. Once one steps away
from singularity there is no stopping until there is a cosmos full of
things, an effectively infinite field in which everything is potentially
or actually in relationship to every other thing. And more, everything
can be related to every other thing in a multitude of ways, so that we
have infinity piled upon infinity.

In contrast to this first transition, the passage to third and fourth
stages merely adds qualities of greater specificity to the infinitude of
the second stage. A limited set of potential events gets selected out of
the infinity of possible relationships and proceeds towards full
manifestation. There is no radical transformation as there is between
the first and second stages.

Stage two corresponds to the state in the individual where an idea in
consciousness becomes transformed into the many nervous signals
necessary to direct the body's response to the intention. This stage
belongs to the adepts, whose primary concern is with the establishment
of relationships between things, the creation of magickal links. As
individual neurons are to the idea in consciousness, so adepts are to
the divine ideal. Each adept picks up particular aspects of its
potential expression, those which relate to his own nature and position.
Each adept creates links between the ideal and those things within his
own sphere of influence which reflect its nature. Additionally each acts
as a transmitter, passing the sensed potentials on to other adepts with
resonant natures who are focused at lower levels.

If sufficient magickal links are created, the divine ideal eventually
becomes established in Tiphereth as a self-sustaining thought-form. This
thought-form acts as a secondary center of focus for the divine ideal,
concentrating and amplifying the forces transmitted along the magickal
links, and sending out new signals into the lower worlds. This thought-
form is also an "ideal", an expression of the original ideal within time
and space and the context of human perceptions. Unlike the original it
can be sensed by apprentice-level beings, and translated by them into a
series of concrete goals within the manifest world.

The works of some adepts partially bypass this thought-form and act
directly on the lower worlds. One type of adept concentrates on the
"multiplicity" aspect of stage two and brings this aspect down into the
lower worlds to be expressed as intellectual formulations or ideas.
Another type of adept concentrates on the "relationship" aspect,
manifesting it in the form of artistic creations. By providing these
links directly into the worlds inhabited by apprentices, they provide
apprentices with patterns by which they can learn to sense to the ideal
expression in Tiphereth.

Passing to stage three adds the quality of active response or
intelligent activity to the creation. This stage corresponds to that
stage in the individual where the neuronic signals reach their goals in
various parts of the body. These signals, acting on non-neuronic cells,
cause those cells to change their state of activity in ways that conform
to the conditions set by the signal. The cells take energy and matter
from their environment, transform it in accordance with the signals, and
release it back into the environment. The release may come in the form
of movement, as in the case of muscle cells, in the form of chemical
secretions that produce global or localized changes in the rest of body,
in the form of changes in electrical or magnetic conductivity, or
several other ways.

Note that the signals coming to the cell do not force the cell to
perform in a specific way, nor do they direct the cell's activity in
detail. Remember that each cell is a particularization of the overall
potential of the body. Its innate nature defines and expresses a
specific set of those general potentials. The signal it receives need
not contain any information at all as to how the cell must respond. The
cell knows by its nature how it must respond, and does so automatically,
translating a generalized command into a specific set of activities.

In the process of divine creation, this third stage belongs primarily to
the apprentices. The quality of intelligent activity has much greater
scope in their work than in the cell.

Cells exist in a more or less fixed relationship to the rest of the
body, and each is particularized to express only a few types of
activity. Their response to incoming signals is also fixed to a limited
range.

Human beings, while still particularized with respect to the universe as
a whole, otherwise possess a remarkable freedom of action. They exist in
a constantly changing relationship to other humans and to the rest of
their environment. Unlike cells any human being can perform a vast range
of activities, depending on the contexts in which they are acting. Most
importantly humans, within the extremely broad limits of their
particularizations, are capable of defining and re-defining their own
activity within the "body" that is our world. And paradoxical as it may
seem, apprentices have a greater freedom in this regard than do either
adepts or mages.

Apprentices are in a way repeating the actions of the adepts, but on a
lower level. The adept takes the singular will which is the divine ideal
and translates it into a multitude of potential relationships, which in
turn eventually coalesce again into the expressed ideal in Tiphereth.
When an apprentice senses an expressed ideal, its influence is
translated in his or her mind into a set of goals or possibilities for
self-expression. Those that are congenial to the person's nature are
incorporated into the person's self-image, thoughts, and emotions. Then,
in the course of the apprentice's life in the world, situations arise in
which action can contribute to the achievement of these self-chosen
goals. Through the intelligence inherent in his being, the person
chooses those activities that will help to make the goal manifest.

Note that the choice of actions comes entirely from within the
apprentice's being. The expressed ideal in Tiphereth contains no
specifications concerning the way that the ideal is to be manifested,
but only of the intended result. The manner in which the apprentice acts
towards that goal is always a matter of free choice. Adepts and mages
participating in the act of divine creation never attempt to force or
coerce the apprentice into a particular course of action. At most, they
will arrange to provide the apprentice with opportunities for action in
line with the goal. But even in these cases, the choice of whether to
take the opportunity, and what to make of it, is wholly within the hands
of the apprentice.

This acknowledgement of free choice is not only a matter of ethical
action on the part of adepts and mages; it is a matter of utter
necessity if the divine ideal is to come into full manifestation.

It is the task of apprentices to create the final links between the
divine ideal and the material world. Because they are still close to the
material pole, they are best qualified to make the final adjustments
that will fit one to the other and complete the creation. Their natures
are exactly suited to this work, and no higher initiate can do it
better.

By becoming more directly identified with the divine ideal in its
primary form, mages and adepts have sacrificed some of their freedom of
action within the lower worlds. Close identification with the divine
will excludes many courses of action that are in accord with that will,
but which require close identification with the material pole of
existence. They can not maintain an identification with both the divine
and material poles at the same time. Since they had previously passed
through the apprentice stage, adepts and mages are still capable of
acting directly on the material world, but only by temporarily reducing
their degree of identification with the ideal. The more attention they
have to pay to purely material affairs, the less of the higher
identification they can maintain.

Another consideration is that when the divine will touches directly on
the lower worlds, without the buffering provided by intermediate links,
its action is inevitably destructive. Matter and the substance of the
lower mind is at present incapable of absorbing the divine will
directly, and contact with it would result in a subjective equivalent of
vaporization, destroying all form beyond possibility of reconstruction.

Finally, adepts and mages must consider that all acts of divine creation
must take place in ways that encourage the continuation of the process
of initiation. This seems to be a precondition for any sort of divine
creation within the human Tree of Life. What little we know of the
Cosmic Tree suggests that it is universally applicable in that realm as
well. The rule as gods view it is that matter must be continually
transformed into spirit, until all of it has been transformed. The means
by which this is done is the process of creation and resulting
initiation.

Through the combined effects of the individual activity of many
apprentices, the divine ideal is eventually brought safely down into
full manifestation. A final quality is added to the series, which can be
called objectification or externalization. The actions of apprentices
over time create an activity in the material world which takes on a life
of its own, and is seen as having an existence independent of those who
worked to create it.

In many cases, this "objectified" ideal does not actually exist in
matter. Rather, it exists as a form on the astral plane, having
sufficient organization to maintain itself and gather energy to itself
without further conscious effort on anyone's part. Since most of
humanity is currently focused on the astral plane or on the adjacent
areas of the lower mental planes, they perceive it as real and act
accordingly in their daily lives, even though the thing they perceive
can easily be shown to have no existence when it is viewed with a strict
definition of objectivity. Among the most obvious of such objectified
ideals are the various organizations that make up the social structures
of current-day cultures. "Government" is such an ideal, as are
religions, corporations, money, and many other things to which we
routinely grant the status of "real". But in many other cases, the end
result of the process is truly "objective", that is, having existence in
matter.

From the divine viewpoint, all the sephiroth below Tiphereth are equally
"material"; the stuff of the astral and mental planes is simply matter
in a different state than that of Malkuth. So the establishment of a
divine ideal in the matter of any of these planes is considered a
successful creation.

There are several more factors that should be considered by the reader
who is attempting to gain a clear mental picture of the process of
divine creation. The most important of these points is that this process
is not all "one-way", does operate solely from the top downwards.
Between and within each stage there occurs feedback, a constant dance of
adjustment and readjustment.

In the body, the reactions that take place in the course of
externalizing a thought influence in turn the next thoughts to arise in
the person's mind. Cells send information back along the neural
pathways, telling of their current status and what they will be capable
of doing in the next few moments. In the course of accomplishing a
simple action, such as reaching out to grasp an object, what has been
accomplished at any given moment is fed back to be compared against the
initiating thought, and new signals are sent adjusting the ongoing
process to maintain its direction towards the intended goal. And there
is a constant flow of information around the body in the form of
chemical secretions and electromagnetic states that inform the cells of
the state of other cells operating on their own level.

Similarly in divine creation, there is a constant flow of information
upwards along the created channels as well as downwards or outwards into
the manifest world. Adjustments are made "on the fly" to account for the
relative success of the various groups involved, and to account for
changes in the world to which the effort of creation is being applied.
Over time, the physical manifestation becomes an increasingly more
accurate correspondence to the intent.

It will be important to keep in mind that divine creation is a dynamic,
continuing process rather than a fixed or "one-shot" activity that
happens once and not again. It is the dynamism of the process that makes
initiation and evolution possible at all, which keeps the world from
being in truth the static, stratified, unchanging place that ancient
theologians thought it to be. Much of our later concern with keeping the
results of initiation are directly concerned with the dynamic aspects of
the process.

A related factor to consider is that divine ideals have a finite life-
span, when viewed from a standpoint in time and space. They come into
existence in the world, take some time to develop their inherent
possibilities, and then pass out of existence again. At any given moment
in time, several ideals are in various stages of their cycle. Some are
just beginning to come into the awareness of mages. Others have been
linked to the earth and are in process of becoming fully manifested. And
yet others have completed their lives and are gradually breaking up and
going out of manifestation. Depending on their individual natures and
sensitivity, various parts of the population will be attracted to one or
another of these ideals.

It is also important to remember that the manifestation of any divine
ideal consists of many different threads, composed of many different
types of energy expressing different aspects of the ideal. There are
always at least seven different aspects involved in any manifestation,
and each of these may be wholly or partially incompatible with the
others when viewed from the viewpoint of an incarnate human. No
individual can judge from his own experience of the expressed ideal
whether another person is or is not also sensing that ideal. Activities
that appear antithetical from an individual's view may in fact be
different aspects of the same divine expression. Full appreciation of
the manifestation can only be had by a mage or very high-level adept.

Students of Thelemic doctrine might profit by considering the three
"Grades" mentioned in Liber AL in light of what has been said above
about the stages of divine creation.


                       Ŀ
                         Inflow of   
                        Divine Force 
                       
                               
                       Ŀ
  ĳ Destruction of Ŀ
                       Limiting Forms          
                               
                                                 
   Ŀ                  Ŀ
    Synthesis of New                    Expansion of  
    Forms Compatible Ĵ Consciousness 
      With Divine                        to Absorb    
        Force                           Divine Force  
                     
            Ŀ
                              
                      Ŀ
                        Testing of    
                        New Forms     
                      
                              
                     Ŀ
  Ĵ   Are New Forms   
           No          Fully Compatible? 
                      
                                Yes
                               
                         Ŀ
                          Expression
                          In Action 
                         

                 Figure 2. The Conformation Cycle


The Conformation Cycle in Initiation

In initiation, the initiate receives a flow of force from some level
more inclusive than that on which his conscious mind is currently
focused. If he/she is to retain any benefit from the experience, those
parts of the being that are below his level of focus must be consciously
brought into alignment with that force, within the context of their
natural modes of functioning. All of these parts must be brought in to
the alignment. Not one can be left out.

This means that we can not be satisfied with simply receiving and
"feeling" the force. We have to direct our emotions so that those
incompatible with the force fall away, and new ones that are fully
compatible come to the fore. We have to direct our intellects so that
ideas shown by that force to be false are eliminated, and the remainder
reconstructed to fit the our new perceptions. We have to modify our
self-image and goals to include the new vistas opened to us. We have to
re-examine all of our being in terms of the new force, and change our
being so that the force can flow freely between levels.

The goal of initiation is to make all of the vehicles perfectly
"transparent" or perfectly responsive to the highest and most inclusive
divine force the initiate can experience at a given time, and to elevate
the focus of consciousness so that it operates from the highest level
possible. The conformation cycle is the process by which this goal is
attained.

Figure 2 represents the cycle of activity by which an initiate absorbs
divine force coming into his or her sphere. This figure falls within the
box labeled "Conformation Cycle" in Figure 1.

This cycle is applicable to the initiate's actions both with respect to
his own initiations and with respect to his participation in the Great
Work. The only difference between the two cases lies in what kinds of
forms are being destroyed and created in the process. In initiation, the
forms are actually forms that make up part of his individual being. In
the Great Work, the forms are those that he creates to act as magickal
links to bring the divine ideal into manifestation.

The conformation cycle contains another cycle within it, which is not
shown because it is constantly in action throughout the process. This
inner cycle is the cycle of invocation and response. At each step of
this process, the initiate is in constant need of a contact with the
incoming divine force. At the very beginning of the process, it is his
desire and intent, directed upwards through the planes, that generates
the initial inflow of force. As the power gathered from that first
inflow is expended, he is constantly re-invoking the force, replenishing
the power so that the process can continue.

Invocation and response may take the form of formal ceremonies and
magickal efforts, or it can simply be a continual "looking towards" the
divine with a desire to draw it into contact again. In any case, the
directed intent and desire of the magician attracts both the force and
the attention of interested beings on higher levels, who provide him
with assistance in bringing down the force, and also assist with
suggestions as to appropriate forms that might be created to hold and
channel the force. Without this constant renewal of contact, any effort
to reconfigure form to match the force will fail.

Throughout the following sections the word "form" will be used as a
generic term for that on which the force of the divine ideal acts. It is
perhaps not the best term available, but after reviewing many more
technically specific terms from philosophy, phenomenology, and
metaphysics, I find the use of such terms would not add any significant
understanding to the subject being dealt with here.

The viewpoint from which the process of conformation is described is one
in which the consciousness of the initiate exists in an intermediate
area between a positive and a negative pole. The positive pole in this
discussion is generally the divine ideal in one of its three aspects.
The "negative" or more material pole is in most cases not the sephira
Malkuth, as is conventionally the case, but rather Tiphereth.

The conformation process is one that takes place on the same planes in
which the adept normally works, and it is usually only the adept in whom
the process takes place consciously. Conformation to the divine ideal
always takes place before any appearance on the more material planes,
even such an abstract appearance as a thought that can be described in
words.

So the material aspect of the process, the "forms" on which the divine
ideal works, are the formulations of relationships, the magickal links
with which the adept does his work. When speaking of "forms", of the
"breaking up of forms" or the "creation of forms" we are speaking of
either (in the case of initiation) the formulated relationships that
maintain the internal connectivity and unity of the individualized
adept, or (in the case of divine creation) of those magickal links the
adepts create between the divine ideal and the lower worlds.


Phase 1: Destruction of Old Forms

The first effect of an inflow of divine force is always destructive. The
"vibrations" of the force have a tendency to break up any form that is
incompatible. This effect is represented cabalistically by the planet
Mars and the tarot card The Tower.

Mythologically, Mars has always been associated with a rise to the
heights, followed by a sudden disaster and a subsequent rapid fall. The
disaster is usually caused by the entry onto the scene of a new and
unanticipated factor, often through divine intervention. The Tower of
Babel story is a classic example. To understand how this relates to the
conformation cycle we have to back up a little bit.

As was shown in Figure 1, the entire process of initiation is itself
cyclic. As the cycle progresses, it gradually draws away from the divine
ideal and towards full objectification. Eventually all the divine force
received gets expended, and the individual has to continue to build
using energy drawn from within himself and from his environment. After
objectification has been completed, the process must take a jump back to
its first step to acquire a new flow of divine force from a yet higher
level.

In the interim period, between objectification and the new inflow, the
individual builds up and elaborates on the fundamental forms and ideas
previously established. He works to extend those into areas of life and
experience not directly touched upon in the course of initiation, both
in the material world and on the magickal planes, re-interpreting all of
his being in terms of the new perspective. From the highest level at
which he can perceive, he works to build up an accurate reflection of
his perceptions throughout the lower parts of his being. As more of his
being is integrated into the scheme, the original forms and ideas take
on the psychic equivalent of mass; they become more rigid, more
difficult to move, adjust, or change. They become less transparent to
the divine force on which they were built.

This is a necessary step, and the natural consequence of the stage of
objectification. Once this structure is formed, the individual need not
expend more of his own energy to maintain his consciousness at the high
level achieved in the prior initiation. It becomes his natural state of
awareness, and only movement out of that state requires expenditure of
energy. Instead of having to hold himself high in the air by the force
of will, he is held up in the air by a strong tower, which supports him
against the downward pull of matter.

Somewhat paradoxically, it is during precisely this time, when his
internal expression of his initiation has become objectified and has
begun to take on a quality of rigidity, that the initiate can contribute
the most to the Great Work. The reason is that since he no longer needs
the force provided in his last initiation for his own internal use, he
can afford to expend any additional flows of that same energy in
outwardly-directed activity, building the impersonal iconic and symbolic
forms needed to channel that energy into the lower worlds.

Consciousness of the needs of the Great Work can make a great difference
in the extent of the rigidification that occurs, and thus in the amount
of time between initiations and in the difficulty experienced in the
course of the next initiation. A certain amount of it is necessary, but
the motivation of the individual can vary the amount that actually
occurs remarkably.

In a person who is primarily concerned only with his own advancement and
power, the process of rigidification tends to continue to its natural
limits. That is, it goes on until all of the lower bodies have been
fully fixed in the new formation, and the formations have begun to build
up a "crust" around the person's awareness on its own level. It can
extend event further, into the person's relations with planes higher
than that on which the awareness is focused, by creating assumptions and
restrictions of thought concerning the next steps that will be taken in
his development.

With this wholly personal motivation, the person becomes encysted in his
own thought-structures, locked up in his own tower. The walls of his
tower block him off from direct contact with the planes from which the
force of his next initiation must come. As a consequence, the force of
invocation needed to produce a response from the higher levels is
greatly increased. He must also depend on the responding powers to
answer with a degree of force sufficient to blast apart the thought-
formations in which he is embedded. And if the force is sufficient to do
so, then the experience of the next initiation will be literally
shattering and disastrous to the present form of being, a full
expression of the events represented in the Tarot card.

At the other extreme, in the person who is wholly convinced that his own
initiations serve only the purpose of making him better suited to
participate in the Great Work, the rigidification tends to stay at the
minimum needed to support his awareness at its new level and to serve as
a foundation for the next initiation. Between the time when his
initiation becomes externalized and the time when the next initiation
begins, he concentrates not on building up the lower being into
conformation with his own centralized point of perception, but rather on
keeping the lower being in a state of fluid responsiveness to the needs
of the divine creation, regardless of whether those needs match what the
individual awareness thinks of as its own advantage.

In this case, the lower levels of being will still be formed into
structures relating to what the person currently perceives of the divine
ideal. The difference is that these structures will be decentralized and
impersonal. It is as if the initiate, rather than building a tower for
his sole use and protection, were building a grand plaza in the air, an
open structure that could be used by anyone who chooses to do so, freely
and without restrictions. He considers himself neither the architect nor
the owner of these structures, but only a builder, one of many
contributing to the overall effect as a service to the world.

Creating a sense of service, of contribution to the Great Work, requires
the conscious development of several attitudes:

1. The attitude that the results of initiation are not the property of
the initiate, but are only held by him temporarily as a matter of public
trust.

2. The attitude that the benefits of the initiation must be extended
freely to all who have need of it and want it, but must not be forced
upon any against their own preference.

3. The attitude that each person who makes use of what he has freely
given must be allowed to make use of it according to that person's own
perception of the goals and ideals, and can not be restricted by the one
who gives.

4. The attitude that the work as a whole is the product of a vast number
of workers, and that the contribution of any one of them is not so much
greater than that of the others as to make him more important or worthy
of respect than others. The attitude that it is the divine structure
being built that is worthy of respect and appreciation, not those who
did the work. Conversely, that no person is unworthy of respect simply
because his apparent participation in the Great Work is small or
nonexistent.

5. The attitude that service given freely to others is service given to
oneself.

It must be emphasized that the concept of service as it is presented
here does not mean the same thing as either "servitude" or "servility".
At all times, the one who seeks to serve in the Great Work must demand
for himself the same freedoms that he willingly gives to others. He must
at all times be the sole arbiter of the extent to which he serves, the
type and limits of that service, the interpretation placed upon that
service, and the manner in which that service is performed.

No other being, not even a god, has the right to demand that he perform
acts that are against his own nature or inclination. As was shown in the
preceding section of this paper, the needs of the Great Work are such
that they can only be accomplished through freely given cooperation. If
circumstances seem to be pressuring a person towards a certain course of
action that he would not willingly participate in, then that course is
not part of the Great Work.

It must also be pointed out here that the person who has committed
himself to submission to the demands of his social group, who is truly
servile, will have as great a difficulty in attaining initiation as the
person who is wholly committed to just his own personal advancement. He
is just as locked into a tower of rigid forms as the self-oriented
person. Only, the tower in his case has been constructed by others, out
of the instinctual needs of the social group and the mass of
conventional thoughts and behaviors built up over the centuries. To
receive the touch of divine force, he must be blasted out of his tower
much as his polar opposite would.

It is only through this concept of the Great Work, of free service
freely given under the divine ideal, that the conflicting poles of human
social experience are reconciled and blended into a single path. The
individualist remains free to do his own will; the socialist remains
free to help his fellow humans. All that either sacrifices is something
to which they had no right in the first place: the use of force or
coercion against others.

Going back to our discussion of the destruction of forms, this attitude
of service frees the individual from many of the pains, difficulties,
and seeming terrors that the more self-oriented types experience along
the path of initiation. The one who is wholly committed to service in
the Great Work does not perceive the structures he has built as being in
any way his own property or possession, but rather as things that are
only temporarily in his care. When the time comes to create new forms to
conform to the inflow of force in a new initiation, he can let loose of
them with a minimum of difficulty. Since by definition the inner worlds
become more inclusive as one progresses through them, he knows that what
will replace that which he gives up can only improve his ability to
participate in the Great Work. He is not attached to the icons and
symbols he has built, and so experiences no loss in giving them up.

Another important point is that because the willful server has not built
his conceptions into a separate, monolithic structure, only those parts
of his decentralized structure that are incompatible with the new flow
of divine force will be destroyed. The majority of the parts will remain
intact. For the person trapped in a personalized or socialized tower,
this is not the case. Many parts of that tower, if not so closely bound
together, would not be destroyed by the new force. But because they are
bound together, when one falls they all fall. The difference is that
between a minor inconvenience and a full-blown psychological disaster.
Additionally, the fact that his intent is habitually focused on sensing
the divine ideal means that he will be better able to maintain his
awareness on a high level during the process of destruction, and to a
certain extent will be able to direct it to critical points, making the
process more efficient.

Most of us will fall somewhere between the trapped dualities of fully
individualized or fully socialized mental constraints on the one hand,
and the full freedom of the willful server on the other. The extent to
which we will be able to make the destructive aspects of initiation
occur in a smooth and controlled manner will be determined by the extent
to which we make an effort to adopt the perspective of the willful
server in the Great Work.


Phase II: Expansion and Absorption

It was mentioned in discussing the process of divine creation that the
divine ideal or initiating impulse is translated by mages into two
complementary aspects: a "Will" or "Intent" aspect and a "Vibratory"
aspect. It was the vibratory aspect that brought about the destruction
of incompatible forms in the previous phase, and which will be used to
test the newly synthesized forms in the last of the four stages of the
conformation cycle. In this phase and the next, it is the "pattern"
aspect which predominates.

Since this "Intent" exists above the Abyss, it is difficult to give a
precise definition of what it is. It exists in the sephira Chokmah,
which is the archetypal "potential Son" which is eventually brought into
being in the lower worlds as the "true Son" in Tiphereth. Tiphereth
being among those sephiroth where the principle of relationship is most
important, its archetypal precursor must in some way be concerned with
the universal potential for relationship inherent in the divine ideal.
It seems a contradiction to say that dualistic relationship exists
within the unity of the divine ideal, but this is a failure of
description, not of fact. The relationships contained within the Will
aspect of the divine ideal are only potential, not actual. They are the
relationships that must be achieved if the divine ideal is to become
fully manifested.

It is this intent aspect, brought down into the worlds of the adept as a
force expressing potential relationship, with which the initiate is
concerned in the next two phases.

Destruction of the old forms frees the individual temporarily from ties
to the lower levels of his being. The inflow of divine force now
provides a channel by which the consciousness of the individual can move
upward into a new level of inclusiveness. His horizons are expanded and
new modes of perception appear as the force floods through him. This
stage is represented cabalistically by Sol, and the tarot card The Sun.

Initially, this raising of consciousness comes automatically and without
effort on the part of the initiate. For a while, the individual floats
above the world, separated from it and unaffected by it, yet feeling
intimately connected with all that occurs there. He feels full of light,
free, and unconditioned. The forms which formerly held him are no longer
a constraint, and the time has not yet come for new forms to be created.
He takes in and re-radiates the force like the sun at noon.

If the person simply basks in the pleasure of this experience of
unconditionality without making a conscious effort to absorb it into his
being, then the old forms that were broken up eventually will re-form
into something like their original condition. The shards of thought left
over from the breakup act as seeds around which the matter of the inner
planes accumulates until the old structures are complete again.

The person has to consciously grasp the inflowing force and use it to
pull himself up to the highest level possible. He must make an effort to
identify himself, to the extent that he is capable, with the divine
Will. Holding himself on that high level, he must direct the force into
his lower bodies; by comparing the remaining forms to the intent
inherent in the divine force, he determines which of them will be of use
in the new creation and which will not. He then uses the force to burn
away, to occultly vaporize, all the other shards of form left over from
the destructive stage, as soon as he becomes conscious of them. Through
this process of grasping and directing the force, he gradually forces
out of his lower bodies all energies that are incompatible with the
divine intent as he is currently able to sense it, and replaces them
with the incoming initiatory energy.

For each of the three types of persons mentioned above (the socialized,
the individualized, and the willful server) this stage presents certain
opportunities and certain hazards.

For the person who is submitted to social constraints, this stage
represents the first experience of freedom and individuality. He becomes
aware for the first time that the forms and symbols that bind him are
not himself and do not originate from himself. Characteristically, he
reacts to this by becoming deliberately unconventional, taking his
former constraints and turning them upside down. He develops a sense of
vast humor at the actions of his fellows who are still constrained, and
has great fun disturbing their tranquility. Unfortunately, judgment
usually flies out the window along with the constraints, with
consequences in his relations with others that can be rather
embarrassing. In short, he makes a grand fool of himself.

If he continues in his foolishness without consciously trying to grasp
that which has given him his freedom, then eventually the force of the
initiation will run out and his awareness will fall back into the lower
levels. Without the sustaining presence of the force to heighten his
awareness, he usually falls into a pattern of "conventional
unconventionality", trying to maintain the conditions created in himself
by the force without either the perspective or the energies needed to
create a true reflection of it. The patterns thus created are a travesty
or unconscious mockery of what could have been created had he not lost
hold of the force.

Since the beginning of the experience was a true initiation, the person
is often unaware of his "fall from grace", thinking that the course he
is following is the normal course after the Solar initiation. He may
think that he is still in an initiated state and try to pass on the
"wisdom" he has gained, getting into contact with others in similar
state to develop a "philosophy" or "style" of magick reflecting the
mocking form.

Such philosophical travesties can be identified by their lack of
internal consistency, their lack of humor and self-criticism, their non-
specific contempt for anything normal or conventional, a frantic
emotionalism that is obvious to everyone except the philosophy's
practitioners, and a body of magickal techniques centered on ways to
destroy forms, rather than on bringing more inclusive forces into the
awareness.

Following the techniques of one of these travesties may indeed enable
the practitioner to get back up to the stage of freedom following the
destruction of forms for short periods. But because there is no more
inclusive force available to pull them him up any further, he inevitably
falls back down into the lower levels again. He becomes a yo-yo
perpetually bobbing up and down between the solar and the lower mental
levels.

By consciously taking in the initiatory force and using it to burn away
those mind-sets and behavioral patterns that were imprinted on him by
society, the person submitted to social constraint achieves a true solar
consciousness, a true individuality in which the source of all his
behavior is his own inner being. The removal of social imprinting leaves
him aware in full consciousness of the "expressed ideal" in Tiphereth,
and able to bring it down into the lower worlds in completely
appropriate forms. Eventually as he becomes more fully aware of that
ideal (in the form that it comes to him through his own soul) he enters
the ranks of the adepts and becomes a conscious creator of magickal
links in the Great Work.

The fully individualized person is normally possessed of at least some
solar awareness to start with, and may in fact be living consciously as
a soul within the worlds of the Tree. All adepts have full solar
consciousness, and the problems of being trapped in the structure of
self-created relationships is characteristic of adepts. For them, this
problem comes from a failure to release forms created as part of the
Great Work.

It is the nature of the solar consciousness to draw energies around
itself. The purpose of the soul is to act as a lens or focus for
energies coming from the core of being so that those energies might be
properly directed for use in the lower worlds of the Tree of Life. This
centralizing and attractive aspect of the soul is the means by which
that focus is achieved. In its attractive aspect the soul is in fact an
embodiment of the principle of relationship, and it is through its own
nature that the soul creates the magickal links between the divine ideal
and the lower worlds.

 The inflow of force from the divine ideal under normal circumstance
will keep the adept from becoming too centered in this solar awareness.
When the force is present, it is unmistakably clear to the individual
awareness that it is not the center of being. But as was said earlier,
the manifestation of a divine ideal goes in cycles, and also has periods
of greater and lesser strength within its larger cycles. It may be that,
for reasons totally beyond the adept's control, the force of the divine
ideal ceases to flow through him for a time and no amount of invocation
on his part will bring it back. He experiences a time of dryness.

If this time goes on too long, the soul will continue to work at forming
appropriate vessels for the force out of the substance of its own being,
using such energy as it can draw from its immediate environment. But
without the presence of the divine will, the strength of the soul's own
attractiveness is too strong to be fully overcome. The created iconic
structures, instead of being released into the magickal world to do
their work, become "stuck" to the adept. As more and more of them are
built, they form a shell around the adept until he is trapped in a
structure of his own creations. It is not fully his fault, except in
very rare cases, but it happens nonetheless. When the force begins to
flow again, or a new force from a higher level comes in, these forms
have to be blasted away.

A similar problem occurs when the adept reaches the lower edge of the
so-called "Abyss". At this point in his development, the adept has
effectively exhausted the potentials for relationship inherent in his
own soul. Yet the soul continues to build structures of relationship;
its nature does not permit it to do otherwise. The conscious being comes
to a point where he feels trapped in an endless cycle of old
expressions, each one following predictably on the one before. Nothing
seems new, and it sometimes feels as if the divine force has abandoned
him permanently. This is the experience of the Wasteland or Dark Night
of the Soul.

In either of these cases, it becomes a true struggle for the adept to
continue in his course towards the divine. He feels as if he is
smothering in his own wastes. The sense of hopelessness and despair
becomes a constant undercurrent to his experience and must be fought
against continuously. It is only by drawing on his inner reserves of
will that he is able to continue at all.

When the adept again experiences an inflow from the divine and it begins
to break up these accumulated forms, his sense of relief may be so great
that he just wants to lie back and enjoy the experience for a while. But
as was the case with the socially-imprinted apprentice, if he does not
consciously expand his awareness and absorb the incoming force then the
structures he has created will again gather around him and cut him off
from the divine. He must consciously draw himself up to a point on the
magickal planes that is wholly above those on which the forms exist.
And, from that high point, he must direct the force downwards to
vaporize and disperse the incompatible forms. And, as with the
apprentice, the divine force replaces that which it disperses, remaining
in the adepts being to be the material of new forms.

The apprentice goes through this stage consciously only once; it is his
initiation into the ranks of the adepts. The adept goes through this
stage and the succeeding stages many times, each time gaining a higher
perspective and a greater understanding of the links that make up the
body of the divine creation. Eventually, after he has exhausted the
potential for relationship in his individuality, this stage of expansion
and Absorption brings him to a point where the quality of divine will in
his being exceeds the quality of relationship, and he moves into the
ranks of mages.

For the willful server, this stage presents few problems; being focused
on the accomplishment of the Great Work more than on his own
advancement, he has few difficulties in destroying old forms. He has no
attachment to them. His problems, when they do appear, are of another
sort.

While the mode of free service freely given can be accomplished by
persons of any grade of initiation, its primary source is on the planes
"above" the "Abyss". It is a primary expression of the divine ideal as
it is being worked out in this current age, as the expression of divine
love was the divine ideal in the preceding Piscean age.

The consciousness of those focused in the first three sephiroth is not
directed downwards into the worlds of matter, but rather upwards towards
the source of the divine ideal. The problems of those who are fully
committed to service to the Great Work will tend to reflect this
direction. (Though, being imperfect as we all are, they are also likely
to experience some of the problems of the other two groups.)

The main problem of the willful server is premature abandonment of the
lower worlds. He has little trouble releasing old forms and burning away
the debris. Instead, he is likely to become so identified with the
incoming divine force that he abandons any sense of a need to bring it
down into the worlds of men. Such an identification is only appropriate
for those who are mages. For them the goal of initiation is total
freedom from the Tree of Life, and entry into the greater Tree of
Cosmos, passing from the path of initiation onto the Star-Roads, the
ways of perpetual creativity and discovery.

For those who express the way of service in the lower worlds, this
course is inappropriate. If they follow it anyway, they become the sort
of spaced-out mystic who is unconcerned with anything within the world,
even his own life, so long as he can get lost in the divine. The world
becomes unreal to them even while they remain in it. Thus the task of
the willful server in this stage is the delicate one of maintaining an
attachment to the world, but not too strong an attachment. Should he
become too strongly attached, then he will begin to experience the
problems of the other two types spoken of here, and will have to work
out those problems before returning to his primary mode of service.


Phase III: Synthesis of New Forms

The process by which the initiate creates new forms for the divine ideal
is the most difficult phase of the cycle of conformation to describe.
The previous two phases and the following phase have readily-
comprehended material analogies; understanding of those phases is merely
one of extending known principles to new realms. This phase also has its
lower correspondences, but they are not well understood even by those
who are engaged in the activity. Both this current phase and its lower
correspondences contain the element of creativity, which in its essence
is a characteristic of the divine, and as subject to difficulties of
description as any divine aspect, for reasons described in the first
sections of this paper.

Because of this problem, we have to resort to more symbolic methods of
describing what goes on in this phase. As a framework for the
discussion, I begin by taking some excerpts from an ancient book in the
library of group with which I serve in the Great Work.3 Meditation on
the sequence of steps shown here should provide the reader with an
intuitive comprehension of the process.


1. The artist rises to the height, and from that height surveys the
field of work.

2. The word goes forward. The work proceeds.

3. In the land below, the myriad beings sense the sound of the word, and
respond each in their way. The worthy come forth; the bad retreat; and
those that hear the sound but incomplete find their paths diverted into
loops not of their own devising.

4. The myriad responding vibrate in harmony with the word, but know it
not. They see not the artist, nor know him save through the sound of the
word. It is for the artist to see, and to join them each in their proper
place within the great design.

5. Gently, o artist! Thy materials are but wisps of thought. The touch
of your will must be gentle, subtle, lest they be torn and broken.

6. Gently does the artist's sound direct the myriad creatures in their
motions. Remaining themselves, yet they begin to move as well within the
dance of the pending creation.

7. The dance begins with each alone, each in his own path. Yet as the
sound of creation becomes more pervasive, so do those paths bend and
curve, and in their motion the faintest outline of the pending creation
begins to appear. Creatures touch and separate again. Behind them in
their motion spin out threads of the seven primary powers in their
forty-nine divisions. So is the matrix of creation built.

8. The dance of motion settles into formal mode; the creatures move and
flow along paths of elegant simplicity, each one balanced against all
others.

9. The artist sounds the word again, but at a higher pitch. The myriad
creatures caught within the web of powers vibrate in their place,
attempt to match the higher pitch, yet their natures constrain them from
doing so. The excess will flows into the web-threads; they expand their
length. No longer tight between the creatures they connect, the threads
loop and soar in dimensions previously unknown. They put out children,
which link in nexuses where no creature stands.

10. From the mouth the artist sounds the word; the heart of the artist
casts forth nodes of attraction on which the truly new will form. The
eye of the artist directs the nodes to gather in the empty nexuses of
the web. The nodes put forth their call, and from the unknown places
they draw forth that which is the Heart of Newness.

11. The Heart opens, and heat floods the web. The motion of the dancers
changes and the web expands. Upon those nexuses where the nodes dwell
there come forth creatures new and wondrous to behold, yet fully one
with the elder creatures taken from the prior cycle.

12. The dance again in formal mode, the creatures balanced once again in
swirling movements.


1. As in the previous phases, emphasis is placed on the necessity for
the initiate to do the work from the highest level he is capable of
reaching. Since the intent of this phase is to create forms reflecting
the divine ideal, and to create magickal links between those forms and
the ideal, the consciousness of the initiate must be raised to the
highest level of which it is capable, and at that point must attach
itself to the divine ideal.

This phrase introduces two other concepts as well. First, that the
initiate must remain detached from the things he is bringing into the
synthesis. The initiate's personal preferences, beliefs, desires and
intents must not be allowed to touch in any way upon the material of the
work. The divine ideal must be the sole guiding factor, whether that
ideal emanates from the divine monad at the core of the initiate's own
being, or from some greater source.

The depiction of the initiate as an artist emphasizes that the work
being done is an act of creation. For the duration of the act the
initiate becomes the vehicle of the divine creative power, a channel
through which that power flows so that creation may be extended deeper
into matter.

2. The divine creative power begins by elaborating itself to express its
two subordinate aspects: the divine plan or Word of Chokmah ("the word
goes forward"), and the divine activity or vibrational energy of Binah
("the work proceeds"). "Goes forward" and "proceeds" both include the
idea of extension, that is, of the divine will directing itself into
relationship with something not itself.

The initiate, identifying with the divine ideal, must take the force of
the ideal and project it into the lower worlds. He must project what he
perceives of the divine plan onto the matter of the lower worlds, and
stimulate that matter into action through the use of vibrational energy.

The creation of the synthetic forms takes place in two stages. In the
initial stages of the form-building phase, concentration will be on
those things already existing within the lower worlds that reflect some
aspect of the divine ideal. Gathering these together into a pattern
roughly reflecting the divine ideal provides the foundation on which the
truly new aspects of the ideal can be implemented.

The possibilities for change and creation depend on the current state of
that to which the change is being applied. There must be a pre-existing
potential for change of a particular type in the material of the lower
worlds before such a change can be brought about. Each change must build
on that which came before. No creation springs full-blown into existence
wholly unrelated to preceding events.

This point is so obvious that it becomes subtle. In our normal lives we
have massive amounts of information, collected through experience, on
the potential for change inherent in the objects making up the mundane
world. We use this information so automatically that in most cases,
inappropriate changes never come to the surface of consciousness. It
takes a deliberate effort to bring them to mind.

Similar restrictions exist on the inner planes. A divine ideal can not
be manifested unless at least portions of the world, as it currently
exists, are able to respond to its impulse. But unlike the case on the
physical plane, one is not limited to only those changes that are fully
capable of development in the material as it exists. So long as at least
a few aspects of the divine ideal generate a direct response from the
material of the lower planes, the remaining aspects can eventually be
evoked. This evocation is the second stage of the process of synthesis.

3. The initial stage begins with the projection of the divine ideal and
vibration onto the material of the lower planes. Here that matter is
presented in terms of "creatures" or created things, self-sustaining
complexes of ordered activity. This is a true picture; at this point in
the evolution of the universe, there is no matter on any plane that is
not part of such a complex. These "creatures" respond to the incoming
Word and Vibration according to their compatibility with the ideal being
expressed.

In the original book, two images are used to help expand on this verse.
In the first image, grains of sand are poured onto a vibrating metal
plate. Those grains whose size and shape are "harmonious" to the plate's
vibration tend to gather into specific areas on the plate. Those with
inharmonious size and shape are bounced off the edge of the plate by the
vibration. And those that are marginally or partially harmonious tend to
migrate around the surface of the plate in circular motions.

In the second image, subatomic particles with varying electrical charges
pass through a magnetic field. Some are pushed away from the field all
together. Some are diverted into orbits of various sizes, depending on
their inherent charge. And others are drawn to the center of the
magnetic field and stay there.

Both magnetic-like and vibration-like processes contribute to the
linking of forms in the conformation cycle. The Word aspect of the
divine ideal has a magnetic or attractive quality, since it is the
archetype of the quality of relationship. The Energy or Activity aspect
of the ideal provides the vibratory effects. Between them these two
effects produce a sorting of the forms remaining after the destruction
stage, according to their innate compatibility with the ideal, followed
by an attraction and arrangement of these forms into a pattern that is
harmonious with the ideal. This pattern constitutes a first
approximation of the ideal within the realm of relationship.

4. The pattern is an approximation because many of the forms attracted
to it may actually fit into the pattern in several places. The place in
the pattern into which the form initially fall may or may not be the
most appropriate. As the verse says, the creatures' reactions to the
vibration are unconscious; while they exhibit the quality of intelligent
activity, that quality does not provide them with the means of
distinguishing between several appropriate responses. They have no
capacity for interpreting the Word. The first reasonably appropriate
place encountered in their motion is the one into which they fall.

The magician must examine this initial pattern in detail, looking at the
forms that have become part of the pattern and determining whether each
one might not better represent the ideal when placed in another
position. Where this is the case, the magician must use the will to
relocate the form.

5. This verse cautions that this conscious rearrangement by the magician
must be done carefully. The forms must not be forced into an
inappropriate location; it will fit into any correct location in the
pattern without stress. The magician must constantly compare the
elements of the pattern with the divine ideal, and make only those
changes that are in conformity with it. Attempting to force a form into
the wrong place results in either the destruction of the form or the
disruption of the forming pattern. Care is particularly necessary when
the forms being brought into the pattern are human souls.

6. Once the remaining forms are set into the pattern, then the divine
aspect of activity or energy is brought into play with greater force.
The static pattern becomes dynamic; the individual movements of the
forms within the pattern begin to become coordinated. Yet this
coordination is only apparent from outside the pattern. Each individual
form, if we could take its viewpoint, would still feel within itself
that it was following the dictates of its own nature, and not some
outside force.

7. Increasing the force of the vibrations applied to the pattern causes
two things to happen. First, the paths of motion followed by the forms
begin to contract about a center, and to become increasingly "circular"
within the magickal space the pattern occupies. Along with the
contraction, the motions of the forms speed up and become more
coordinated.

Second, when each form has absorbed as much of the energy as it can, it
begins to re-radiate it as threads or lines of energy expressing its
internal composition. As the forms pass close to one another in their
motion, threads of similar energies reach out and connect them. These
threads of energy are the expression within the realm of relationship of
the archetypal pattern of the divine ideal. They are the magickal links
it is the adepts task to create.

8. Once these relationships between forms have been established, the
pattern begins to expand and to rotate more quickly. The expansion
continues until a point is reached where the incoming energy is just
sufficient to maintain the current size. The motion settles into a
stable but continuously rotating frame. The overall pattern becomes a
"vortex", a chakra in the body of the Earth, expressing a particular
divine intent. At this point, the first stage of synthesizing the forms
is complete, and all existing forms that are relevant have been absorbed
into the pattern. The next step is to create forms corresponding to
those aspects of the divine intent that are truly new.

9. The magician again applies the vibrations of the divine intent to the
created vortex, but this time he deliberately causes them to be at a
higher harmonic of the vibrations used previously. As in the physical
world, the amount of energy carried by these vibrations is related to
the frequency. Since the new vibrations are harmonic to the old, the
pattern of the assembled forms is not changed. However, the new
vibrations contain more energy than can be held by the forms, and it has
to be disposed of somewhere. In this case it passes into the threads of
relationship connecting the forms.

The threads respond to this inflow of energy by extending their length,
or by splitting off additional threads. The innate patterning of the
divine word causes these threads to extend themselves in certain
directions, towards points where the new aspects presented by the divine
word will lie within the completed pattern of relationships. There they
link together into "nexuses" as if the new aspects were already present.
Their connections define the context the new aspects are intended to
take within the existent world.

10. The magician now must engage in a true act of creation. Combining
the three divine aspects of Will (the eye), relationship (the heart),
and activity (the mouth), he creates seed-forms or nodes representing in
skeleton form those aspects of the divine ideal that have not previously
existed within the lower worlds. These nodes form within the plane
represented by Tiphereth, and from there are directed by the magician
into their proper places within the web of energies in the vortex.

The primary force activating the nodes is the force of attractiveness or
manifest relationship; by this force they are intended to pull into form
those energies that were previously unknown within the person's
awareness of the world, but which are needed to fulfill the intent of
the divine ideal.

It should be stressed that even when these unknown energies are truly
new to our world (and not simply new to the magician's experience) they
do exist in the universe prior to the formation of the nodes; they
simply have not previously appeared within the aura of the Earth, which
currently defines the overall context within which all human creators
work. On the inner planes, the Earth is occultly "blocked" from direct
contact with the rest of the universe. It is a "hothouse" in which
certain conditions are artificially maintained in order to accomplish
tasks not possible in the context of the changing conditions of the
larger universe. Certain types of energies are intercepted and diverted
before reaching the Earth; others are distorted or leached of their
information content. The Earth has in effect formed a magickal circle
around herself, and banished these energies from the area of the circle.

As conditions on Earth evolve under the divine will, it is possible to
productively introduce some of these blocked energies into her aura.
When this is possible, the need for them is presented through a divine
ideal in the process of being manifested. When the magicians working on
that manifestation reach the current point in the process, then they
create these nodes of attractiveness. Through the power of
attractiveness, the nodes pull these needed energies through the barrier
of the Earth's magickal circle.

As the energy accumulates around the created node, it first gathers and
converts a portion of the matter of the Tiphereth plane so that it
responds to the incoming energy. The matter absorbs and holds a larger
portion of the energy than the node can hold through its own
attractiveness. The node and the matter together continue to gather and
hold more energy, forming a core manifestation for the new divine
principle. This core is the "Heart of Newness" referred to.

11. Eventually enough energy is gathered that the core begins to re-
radiate it and to produce effects on the other matter of the vortex.
This event appears suddenly when a "critical mass" of energy has been
accumulated. The "Heart" opens up and spreads its energy throughout the
web. The new energy requires an adjustment of the balance between the
forms linked in the vortex; the vortex expands and the forms move into a
new relationship balancing all the powers involved.

The forms expressing new principles from the divine ideal eventually
stabilize, and their activity becomes indistinguishable from that of
forms left over from the prior cycles of creation. The new principles
become fully manifested within the realm of relationship.

12. The pattern expressed by the forms settles into a stable and ordered
activity again, and the process of creation is complete.

Phase IV. Testing of New Forms

In an ideal world, every creation would be made perfectly on the first
attempt. But in our world, such is almost never the case. The vision of
the creating being is imperfect; for many reasons, he does not (at a
particular moment) see all of the divine intent he is capable of
sensing. And his ability to sense the divine intent grows with continued
exposure. A form that appears to fulfill the intent at the time of its
creation may in a short time begin to show inadequacies and distortions.
This happens whether the form is part of his own initiatory work, or
part of his conscious participation in the Great Work. Thus there is the
necessity for testing the created form against the original divine
ideal, and for reiterating the conformation process until it becomes the
best representation of the divine ideal that the creating being can
make.

The creation must be tested before it is directed towards manifestation
in the lower, "material" planes. Once the created form is linked to
those planes, it becomes effectively "locked" into its current form. The
inertia it acquires in manifestation makes it much more difficult to
modify. Even if the created form is destroyed, it will have continuing
residual effects. The Earth retains the imprint of all creations
manifested within it, and those imprints affect the possibilities for
all future manifestations. Creations manifested as part of the
magician's own being have a similar inertia, as described under Phase I
above.

Testing is a relatively simple matter, compared to the previous stages.
The magician takes the "note" or vibrational energy radiated by the
solar form and compares it with the note sounded by the divine ideal.
The differences between them indicate portions of the form that must be
changed, and places in the form where something must be added.

In this work, the magician must stand apart from both the form and the
ideal. He must be able to sense the notes sounded by each with perfect
clarity; the notes sounded by his own consciousness must be reduced to a
level approaching silence. His involvement as creator of the form must
be temporarily forgotten. His pleasure in that act of creation must be
held in abeyance. For the moment he attempts to become a being with no
distinguishable characteristics, save for the subtlest bit of will
maintaining his attention on the notes being compared.

Once the magician has understood the differences between the solar form
and the divine ideal as he senses it, he can then direct the form back
through the previous three phases of the conformatin cycle. On these
later iterations, complete destruction of the form is rarely required.
Usually, only minor portions must be destroyed and rebuilt. Much more
often, the testing only reveals areas where the form is incomplete and
additional properties must be added. Once these additions are made, he
builds in substructures and elaborations, creating harmonies on the
basic note sounded by the form. After several iterations he can no
longer perceive any difference between the notes of form and ideal, and
prepares to effectuate the final link between the form and the material
planes.

In the initiatory process, this final link involves an affirmative
identification of the awareness with the created form. The initiate says
"this is what I now should be". He proceeds to the work of making his
thoughts, feelings, and behavior, his activities within the manifest
planes, conform to the nature of the solar form. By making his material
bodies the reflect of the solar form he creates a channel by which the
particular part of the divine will that he senses can continue to flow
into his being. This flow in turn gradually attracts matter on higher
planes and builds it into his being.This matter creates "bodies" on more
subtle planes through which he can work. Habitual use of these bodies
eventually causes the focus of his consciousness to stabilize at a
higher level than previously possible. The initiation is thus completed,
and the major cycle of initiation can begin again.


Footnotes

1	Definitions of some terms, as used in this paper:

Grades, Magickal - A somewhat arbitrary categorization of the conscious
entities who sometimes inhabit human bodies, based on the level of the
Tree of Life at which an entity's consciousness experience is focused.
For purposes of this paper, four broad grades are used:

        Non-initiates: Persons having their primary focus in Malkuth.
These are rather rare in the current-day population.

        Apprentices: Persons having their primary focus of consciousness
on the astral or lower mental levels, i.e. in Yesod, Hod, or Netzach.
The majority of the human race falls into this category.

        Adepts: Persons having their primary focus on the upper mental
levels, i.e. in Tiphereth, Geburah, or Chesed.

        Mages: Persons capable of perceiving consciously on the purely
"divine" levels of the Tree, in Binah, Chokmah, and Kether. While
incarnate and viewed from a mundane perspective, mages are almost
indistinguishable from adepts, save by careful examination of motive.

        Additionally, there are certain other classes of beings which
must be considered:

        Gods: Not to be confused with the postulated "creator of
everything". Beings having a focus of consciousness entirely outside the
humanly-perceived Tree of Life. Unlike the hypothetical creator, these
are evolving beings, who have at some point in the past passed through
human-like stages of development.

        From the standpoint of these beings, the Tree as a whole
constitutes the Malkuth of the greater Tree of the Cosmos. Those which
act directly in relation to our planet Earth are generally focused on
the astral or lower mental planes of the Cosmic Tree.

        Divine Aspect: The manifestation within the Tree of Life of a
portion of a god's being. Normally does not manifest at any level below
Binah.

        Avatar: A temporary human-like vehicle created by a divine
aspect for a particular purpose. "Temporary" is used in a relative
sense; a given avatar may continue to function over a period covering
many incarnations. Aside from its temporary nature, an avatar is
functionally indistinguishable from a human being of equivalent grade.

        Angels, Devas, Djinn, etc.: Self-aware evolving beings of a
hierarchy parallel to that in the human kingdom, and having equivalent
magickal grades. They do not participate in incarnation, and so have a
somewhat slower speed of development, but otherwise perform similar
functions.

2 In the magickal aspect of the universe, this gap is entirely
subjective, being innate to individualized perceiving awarenesses. In
processes where no such awareness is involved, no gap appears. The same
may be true of the relationship between consciousness and body, as some
scientists maintain. Proof sufficient to decide the matter has yet to be
discovered.

3       The original book, which resides on one of the inner planes, is
a collection of what might be called "encapsulated thought-forms",
compact expressions of ideas in images and symbols. Each such expression
contains multiple analogy-chains or extended metaphors, each of which
resonates with the others to provide experience of the full intent of
the being who created the thought-form. Where a linear expression of
these multiple chains is possible at all, it is still unduly cumbersome
and confusing. In "translating" these thought-forms, I have picked one
particular analogy in each phrase that seems to best represent the
intent of that phrase, without attempting to maintain analogic
consistency between phrases.

