The Magician

In Somerset Maugham's novel The Magician, the character Oliver Haddo is well know for being based on Aleister Crowley. The opening scene takes place in the Chien Noir, French for Black Dog. The Black Dog in this novel is a take on the Chat Blanc or White Cat, a small restaurant in Montparnasse in France. Black Dog is a Led Zeppalin song which was inspired by a black labrador which entered the room.

On remembering this interesting little fact I wondered about the symbolism of dogs. It seems there is an allegory right there. Led Zeppalin's Jimmy Page is an avid follower of Crowley and his lyrics are contrived to convey a hidden esoteric meaning. Make of the lyrics what you will but for now I will tell you its about balance and when Page uses the word star he means it in the same sense Crowley did in the Book of the Law. The coincidence lies side by side and there you have Kabbalistic double speak which Crowley exploited in the Book of Lies (Falsely So Called.) These are not lies but hidden truths, as are all lies. Was it a lie to say the earth was flat? Not before man knew different but it became a lie, when he discovered the world was spherical.

Below you will find something that should either alarm or fascinate you, another one of those coincidences like the Led Zeppalin thing. Of course, there is an answer to all of this; there is never anything without meaning. Its a continuation of the magical current, every generation is guided by magical clues to help pinpoint the right magicians for the appointed tasks of the Aeon. Ah the task you ask "what is it?" The currents are subtle in the sense that the work unfolds in parts and the whole thing cannot be seen from the base looking up, only from the top looking down.

I digress; the task would be easier if you could see it with your true eye. It is now absolutely concrete that your grade in whatever incarnation was your last, was Magister Templi. You see its the 6 the perfect pyramid of Binah. I have been rambling on about it for a while now, that sea of blood. Oh dear what a problem this makes for magick, you cannot find the balance with this left unresolved nor can you find detachment. We all (magicians) enter the present life via the Sephira, depending on the grade achievement of the last life. Its a direct leap from grade to grade, you have demonstrated an instinctive gnosis in what you write but I am afraid you have got yourself a greater task ahead than I think you realize. Can Leviathan swallow up his own sea? This endless spiral can only detract from grade advancement.

As Crowley states, "Refine thy rapture" I think you should think about this at length. Anything chaotic brings with it destruction. The time is approaching where you will need to destroy what you are and re-create the self. With one foot in the sea and one on the land you are not yet a magician and you do not know the completion of the binaries. I cannot expect you to grasp all of this yet but what I must say is you are not yet what you will become but do not leap to the defense of chaos shrieking that you cannot live with order, the balance is neither and both. Oh how dear Horus torments you with his illusions, now you see the tree. My God I lost track of the times I thought of madness invading me when I found that tree everywhere I went. Of course, it is a classic symbol of psychology and it saddens me that you have such an image before you. You have my mind and for that I give you my sorrow. You see crops, I saw grazing sheep but the meaning remains the same we are outside of the crowd, above them. Climb the tree! Your ambitions lie far higher than the stars. The tree is of course the Tree of Life, you have the will if you could see higher.

I tell you whatever you gave you cannot get back. In your anger and through lack of wisdom and patience you offered something that no man should offer to the forces of darkness. There is more to sacrifice than blood and more to the man than the mind. Pitiful that you did not bargain your soul for that weighs so little. I only hope it was worth it but I somehow doubt it, the experience is never worth the pain. So at last you see your punishment for sin, for crime, for betrayal. The gods with their mocking stare filter your mind; all that is without is within. You would not like the price for redemption, you see we all have the knowledge inborn but it is what we do with the knowledge that makes us Magi. Again harsh words and for that I apologise but the Zelator by his degree is stubborn beyond description. If you can see beyond this grade, then you will pass into the next.

What lies ahead? Look to the sun, the moon is behind you and it is only a weak reflection of the solar light.