Often
people ask the Temple for an explanation of Cosmology, an explanation of Origins.
It is very important to people to understand where they have come from, and why
they have found themselves here, in this place, at this time. No other animal on
this planet seeks out these explanations in this way, as far as we know. No other
animal is concerned about why they exist, and why they live where they do, and what
their purpose is. Other animals are not born with a missing identity, as humans
are. It seems as though humans have found themselves here on this planet unexpectedly,
in a strange place that they are not fully adapted to, not knowing who they are
or what they should do next. And unlike all of the other animals, humans have no
innate ability to survive here in this environment without tools and shelter.
Why are humans so different than the other animals on this planet? Why are they
so naive about their origins? Why do they not know why they are here, or what they
are supposed to do? Why do they seek out their purpose, which is unknown to them?
This purpose, this knowledge about one’s origins is vitally important to people
for a good reason - it forms the basis of one’s identity. It is very difficult to
know what choices to make in life if you don’t know who you are, and why you are
here. Knowing where one has come from, and therefore who one is, also tells one
where one should go, and what one should do with their life. Without the information
provided by this history, apathy and degeneracy set in amongst the people. It is
the narrative of a person’s history which informs one about which choices one should
make, and how to make them. It gives one a sense of esteem and identity, which are
so important for one’s connection to spiritual well-being. And it is this story
of one’s history and one’s origins which also defines the limits of one’s understanding
about what life is, and therefore what one’s purpose is here amongst the living.
So
you can now see that this narrative, this history, this story about life and its
origins is very important. Without it, people are lost. With it, they feel an identity
and purpose, and know how to live well. It is that simple. When a people are conquered,
the first act of all conquerors since the Aryan times is to wipe the history and
culture clean from the memory of the conquered people. In doing so, they become
culturally depressed and dispossessed of their will to fight for who they once were.
A people with a strong identity will fight to the death to preserve their culture
and their way of life. The conquered people loose their identity, and therefore
their purpose. Slavery and assimilation are much more easily accomplished when a
people are in this dispossessed state. They become literally de-possessed of their
own Spirit. And this is why since the degeneration from the Ancient times of the
Great Liberating Mother that there
have been so many struggles for control of this narrative about origins and history.
The
Aryans and their children
the
Ichthyos have sought
to destroy and remove all traces of the original Cosmologies of the Goddess in order
to dispossess the people of their purpose and power. They do this at the behest
of their masters. They wish for the people to be something other than they once
were. And so one can now see that as these narratives about our origins have changed,
so too has humanity changed. As these cosmic histories, these Cosmologies have risen
and fallen, so too has humanity.
Often
the Temple is asked about these Cosmologies because the people who wish to come
to us are imprinted with a story and purpose comprised mostly of modern notions
and narratives. They want to make sure that the Temple is compliant with these inherited
notions and narratives, too. They want to make sure that we already agree with them,
and their idea of their origin and purpose, as they have learned it from their books
and friends. They want to assure themselves that we are already in agreement with
whatever appears to be fashionable to them in that way. Some want to know if the
Temple teaches of a creator, a divine being, who created everything in the universe
and all that lives, for they can not imagine anything more than that. Or they want
to know if the Temple is Hermetic and Kabbalistic in its understandings and preaches
the origins as delineated by those systems, because that is what has been taught
to them. Some want to assure themselves that we are atheistic and that we recognize
their myth of the big bang, or that the Elohim’s creation of the world is that same
big bang. Or perhaps they want to know if we are a bit more tricky than that, and
if we adhere to the subtle reversal of that notion by the Gnostics with their Archons
and the like. Some want to know if there are negative existences in layers of unmanifest
unimaginable unknowingness which underpin all that is manifest. And surely we are
fashionably satanic and employ demons and devils of all sorts to cast fear into
the masses in some artistically hellish rebellion against Christianity and modern
western values? Are we Platonic? Neo-Platonic? Pythagorean? Hermetic? Is the Temple
Advaitist? Monotheistic? Dualistic? Gnostic? Polytheistic? Pantheistic? Is it all
a dream, an unreality of maya, a cruel trick of quantum physics where we are all
connected, yet at the same time it is all illusion?
We
Ophidians say to you
that we give credence to none of this, or any of the other grand fantasies which
come from the minds of men over the last few
Aeons. And we will show you why.
Every system of Cosmology since the Fall of mankind away from the
Great Liberating Mother has been a degeneration further and
further away from the original Cosmology of those early
Ophidians. This original Cosmology was given to mankind by
the spirits and guardians of life, who are the denizens of the
Underworld, through those ancient
Priestesses utilizing the
Triangle of Manifestation. This original Cosmology
described the process of creation of all life out of the
Underworld. And this process of creation has no beginning.
It is in fact endless, timeless and forever changing. This is not comprehendible
by most people. The cosmological mechanics of this process were described in the
Seven Guiding Principles,
from which all other Principles and philosophies descend. And out of this grand
mechanism of Cosmology, which expands outward from the
Underworld, all of the Realms and their inhabitants were
explained and described. In this way the purpose of each, including that of humans,
was made plain for all to see.
But,
as mankind became more and more separated from
Spirit, and the methods of true spirit communication became
lost to the majority of people, they also lost the connection to their source. The
people lost the original ways of true Knowledge and Conversation with their own
trusted spirits and guardians. And so they also lost their history. When questions
were asked about the reasons for existence and no
Priestess was there to give the true answers from the spirit
world as they once did, the people had to think up answers on their own, most often
in imitation of those missing
Priestesses
of old. Because of this loss of communication with the
Lineage, the original Cosmology degenerated into new mythologies
and philosophies which held many of the same symbols and ideas of the original,
but which now had been stripped of their original meaning and history. In this manner
the Cosmologies naturally became more and more centered on mind and contemplation
of symbols and ideas, as opposed to the experience of manifest
Spirit in the flesh as it was in the presence of the ancient
Priestesses. In this way
it can now be seen why it is that after the degeneration most Cosmologies are based
upon the rational functions of the mind, the senses, and the limits imposed upon
consciousness by these factors.
As an example, consider that one of the most common themes throughout all Cosmologies,
whether they are Atheistic or Monotheistic, is the notion of the beginning of creation
itself - the beginning of all things. Now the mind’s own thinking and wondering
about its very own origins are limited within a certain framework of understanding
- that of beginnings and endings. This is so because the mind has a beginning and
an ending of its own. It was born, it lived and it will die with the body. So this
is the framework of the understanding of its own existence. And nothing can be thought
of without a framework of some sort, for Air itself is empty and must be defined.
Therefore because of this, it is assumed as an unquestionable fact that everything
else functions in the same way, with the same framework, including creation itself.
It must have an origin as well. It must have a source, just as the mind does. After
all, the mind came from something before it. Or at the very least it appeared out
of nothing, like an unexplainable miracle. And the mind certainly has an end, as
does the body. Therefore, since the mind sees its own mortality, and an unknowable
gulf beyond, it assumes as logical the idea that all other processes work in the
same manner throughout the Universe. It observes that there was a gulf before its
own existence, and there is a gulf afterward, and there is existence in between.
And by its observations of the world it seems to the mind that all things work this
way: birth, life and death.
But
Spirit, unlike the mind
and the
Persona is deathless.
Spirit is eternal. And
Spirit is the source of all manifest life. There is no unconnected
manifestation, no void of being, where something exists and lives but somehow without
a
Spirit tethering that existence.
So therefore there are no ends at all. There is only change. And this brings us
to the First Guiding Principle of that most ancient Cosmology:
All things are born, and change.
There
is no end. There is no Death. "There is no dread hereafter,
" as it is said
in the
Book of Law. There
is only dissolution in the
Underworld,
which is change, and very often rebirth. Death is only the beginning of a new manner
of existing. This is a very difficult concept for modern, Cartesian-based thinkers
to accept. There is no place and no thing without
Spirit, for as we will show that all which exists is in fact
the result of
Spirit manifesting:
in life, in matter, and in the Realms. And the results of this
Spirit manifesting in all of these ways produces everything
that you can and can not see all around you.
Spirit creates every object, every planet, every element and every universe
- through the process of the manifesting of life itself. For endless, boundless
Spirit permeates all that is
- endlessly. It always has and always will without end - despite the limitations
of one’s own mind to be able to conceive of this. And, most confusing of all for
modern thinkers, is the fact that there is no separation between
Spirit and matter. There is no other-worldliness to pursue.
There is no other place which is more real than this reality of the here and now.
This is the First Point on the Star of Seven. This is the First Triangle of the
Seven Triangles. This is the First Spoke in the
Wheel of Divine
Spirit held by
Fortuna,
Helena,
Kybele,
Bona Dea,
Babalon and many, many others.
This is the
Wheel which they
have tried to shatter, in order to rob you of your divine destiny, and to enslave
you for their own wretched purposes. And let it be understood that this
Wheel moves through Sky, Earth and
Underworld. It moves through all of the Realms and all
of existence and nothing exists which is not defined by these
Seven Guiding Principles. The
Seven Guiding Principles describe the very mechanics
of existence itself, and all other principles depend upon these. Moreover, all of
the other
Seven Guiding Principles
extend from and agree with this First Divine Principle: All things are born, and
change.
So let there finally be an end to the Monad, to the Logos, to the Godhead, to the
wretched ONE. "My prophet is a fool with his one, one, one.
" There is not
one of anything in nature. There is not one sun, or one color, or one of any animal.
There is not even one beginning, for if you knew your true spiritual history you
would find that your
Spirit
is continually experiencing new beginnings through new incarnations, ad infinitum.
There is not one life, one death, one truth, one word, or one God. But oh how you
modern people seek after the One. One love, one life, one universe, one self who
is really all other selves, all other manifestation simultaneously. These thoughts
are profoundly naive and over-simplistic, limited as they are by the mind that thinks
them. For one is a restriction, while the plurality expresses the divine uniqueness
of each living thing as it is, regardless of its difference from all other things.
There is confusion here concerning the "one" and feelings of "oneness" in mysticism,
because all things are connected through
Spirit. And when a person feels a hint of that reality for the first time,
they become overwhelmed by the enormity of infinity, and mistake that feeling of
connection as something other than it is. They think because they can feel a connection
to a thing, that they must also somehow be that thing. And when they feel the connections
of things with all other things, then they conclude that they must really be God!
Or one with the universe! Or that the separateness must have been an illusion! But,
it is not true. It is only a feeling of connection through the immortal
Spirit. They are in fact using a
Fila from their
Spirit to all other spirit, and it is more than they can comprehend
in the limited capacity of their mind. An overwhelming feeling of connected enormity
ensues. One must not confuse a feeling of connection, a
Fila, for the thing one is feeling connected to. You are
not a God, or one with everything. You are simply a part of everything - and isn’t
that really good enough? After all, you are still a part of the same reality you
were before you experienced the profound feeling of the
Fila to your
Spirit.
Nothing has really changed for you. A gun to your head will still kill you dead.
That is your proof that you have not yet become a God, merely by having an experience,
or a realization, or thinking a thought. And therefore, so much for the One - and
all of the philosophies and religions which depend upon it.
Life,
as we commonly know it from the viewpoint and limitations of incarnated beings,
is the product of that thing which we call Nature. And it is the observance by our
Ancestors of the mechanics of this thing called Nature which provided the original
morality for all embodied spirit, which is to say all living things. This natural
morality, this
Natura as we
Ophidians call it, is transmitted
and communicated through Living Traditions. These traditions are Living because
they are informed by the spirits and guardians of our
Lineage. These traditions are the result of the interactions
between manifest and unmanifest beings, communicating and interacting by means of
the
Liminal Point. These
Living Traditions teach amongst other things the proper,
Justified behaviors for a given entity in a given place at
a given time. Following these Living Traditions as given by the spirits, Guardians
and
Priestesses results
in bounty and happiness for the devotees. Ignoring them means corruption, disease,
degeneration and sorrow. It is really that simple. And that is the original morality.
But Living Traditions can die. When they do this, they do so because the people
have lost their ability to enact the Knowledge and Conversation of the unmanifest
spirits and guardians which helped to formulate that tradition in the first place.
Because of this, the people loose the source of their spiritual knowledge, and therefore
it ceases to be living. The people then begin to slavishly follow the tradition
as it once was. New information and adaptations are no longer possible. The Living
Tradition becomes something else. It becomes a religion.
There are only a few popular spiritual movements today, besides that of
Ophidian Thelema, which can claim to be living traditions.
The first is the Bon religion of Tibet which still maintains open lines of communication
with its ancestral spirits and guardians. The second is what is generally referred
to as Voodoo, Santeria and a host of other traditions which follow the African Diaspora
across the new world. They too maintain open communication with their ancestral
spirits and guardians, which inform their traditions and magickal techniques. This
is why so many modern occultists eventually leave their original ceremonial schools
of thought based on 18th Century masonry or medieval sorcery in favor of either
one or the other Living Traditions of Bon or Voodoo - or sometimes both at once.
They seek to experience a true manifestation of spirit into matter, rather than
an intellectual or contemplative reenactment of past events.
In
our Living Traditions the spirits and allies of the
Great Liberating Mother have taught us many things concerning
the hierarchy and nature of this Realm in which we all find ourselves. In this
Ophidian Cosmology,
Gaia is the intelligent
Soul of the World, and the little Sister of
Nuit. When we incarnate, a particular
Spirit enters into a physical body and endows that body
with a life-source of its own. This gives the body volition, and allows it to survive
as an independent being outside of and beyond the womb of its host-mother. This
manifested life force, this energy which animates the body is the
Soul of the incarnating
Spirit. The Egyptians called this manifest
Soul the
Ba, and
pictured it as a little bird with a human head.
Now in the same way that our
Spirit
manifests into this Realm as a
Soul
within a body, so too does
Nuit
- the Mother of all Mothers, and the Mother of all things. In fact, She has a tremendous
amount of manifestations throughout the Universe, both direct and intermediary.
For
Nuit is in fact the
Spirit of the Universe itself, which manifests endlessly
and continually into matter in endless variety and form.
Gaia Herself is one such manifestation, and is literally
a
Soul incarnated from the
Spirit which is
Nuit. The Earth is Her body in which She is manifested
- just as you are in your own body. The collective life-force of the planet is part
of Her
Soul. That is why She
is called by
Nuit "my little
Sister, my heart and my tongue".
For
Gaia is the mother of all
life on this planet, just as
Nuit
is the Mother of all things in the universe. And that is also why
Gaia is called the
Anima Mundi, or the
World Soul
by the Ancients - because She is literally a
Soul of
Nuit.
And
therefore the Original Morality of the
Ophidians is the same for us as it was for all of those ancient Goddess
worshippers who existed tens of thousands of years ago. It did not matter whether
they came from the
Lineage
of Earth, Sky or
Underworld
- the morality was the same. And that morality was informed by listening to, communicating
with, and following the decrees of
Mother
Gaia, in the same way that one would listen to their birth-mother when they
were children. In an indigene, which is to say a land-based tribal system, this
morality is still easy to see. Indigenous tribes are made up of small groups of
humans who live directly from the Earth. The Earth provides their shelter, their
food, and their clothes. There is no intermediary, nor is one needed. Everything
is accomplished on a human scale, by the people themselves. There is no machinery
needed. All that one must do to survive therefore is to follow
Gaia's rules, for She alone is the hand that feeds. The tribes
who do this become very successful in their endeavors. And this success we call
Bounty.
Now
it is though our natural innate connection to the
World Soul, as biological children of this life force of
the planet known as
Gaia, that
we can know how to find what we need for survival in Nature. If one cultivates a
relationship with Her, then one will have access in one's Waters and Fires to new
sets of information one did not have access to previously. This is accomplished
by spending time learning to feel in your own Waters and Fires Her
Soul within and around your own existence. A prerequisite
of this process is the forcing of oneself to rely strictly on human-scale methods
for one’s life-needs, living far and away from the sounds and dependencies of modernity.
All things for one’s own survival must be taken from the natural world in your immediate
environment. It is only after a truly natural life has been accomplished, and the
Garden of Eden has been regained, that the quiet contemplation of other forms of
life as they interact with Her and Her various children in nature will become apparent
.
These are the first steps, and the only steps, which will allow one to begin to
rediscover the Original Morality of your species. And it should also be obvious
that only those who live in a human-scale direct relationship with
Gaia will have any inkling of its existence. The rest of
the inhabitants of the world are literally lost in levels of abstraction and dependency
away from the
World Soul,
and therefore have no chance at communication with Her at all. And their lives are
obvious reflections of this state of being.
It should be noted here, in order to avoid any confusion with the reader, that this
way of communicating with
Gaia
has nothing to do with the
Triangle
of Manifestation at all. Rather, this is an alignment of one’s own Waters
and Fires to those of
Gaia so
that you may feel your way to answers concerning survival in Nature which one does
not normally have access to. Anyone of sound mind, with proper instruction and practice,
should be able to accomplish this. In this way one’s priorities, one’s needs and
concerns, will naturally change from those of the modern world to something much
more ancient. In ancient times, this access to the direction of
Gaia's influence in one’s Waters and Fires was the inheritance
of all tribal indigenes around the world, no matter which continent or race they
came from. It is an inheritance which is now mostly lost and squandered. This connection
to Her Waters and Fires within your own Waters and Fires was cultivated and held
in the highest esteem, as it afforded the tribe and the people the best standard
of living possible, far exceeding that which we blindly think we possess as a modern
people today with machinery and technology. And we will give this way of discovering
Gaia and ones relation to Her
again to the world for those brave Spirits who dare to be different than those around
them. These are the Principles of
Natura,
which change the hand that feeds from science and industry back to
Gaia and the Original Morality.
This Natural Morality, this
Natura
cultivated from an intimate relation with the
Anima Mundi of this planet, gave forth all of the rituals
and traditions of the tribes of people. It was these rituals and traditions which
embodied in behavioral form the natural morality. This was the much sought after
Art of Living Well, with proper beauty and purpose. Principles such as mutual respect
for living beings, cooperation and learning from the elders who had the knowledge
of past generations were simple and effective tools not just for survival, but for
thriving as well. When mankind was changed as a species, and tempted to walk away
from
Gaia as the hand that feeds,
that was the same moment that mankind entered into moral jeopardy
. When
one relies upon Nature for one’s sustenance, one can be assured of certain rules
and principles. She will not use you for Her own ends, and then cast you away. One
can be certain that
Gaia will
ensure the principle of reciprocity. "Take from the Earth, give to the Earth, feel
the joy of it!" Such is the way that we
Ophidians were taught to understand this process by the Archangel Auriel.
There are rules of mutuality to be followed in this reciprocity with
Gaia.
Bounty
is what She bestows upon those who follow Her principles.
But when one relies on some other person for their sustenance, whether it be a king,
a slave, a democracy, a corporation, a grocery store or a restaurant, then one will
be subject to the loss of autonomy that is always found in such a transaction. And
this loss of autonomy always leads to corruption and slavery in one form or another
- no matter how well intentioned. For there now is an intermediary between oneself
and
Gaia, and one is cut off
from one’s own connection to the
World Soul as the hand that feeds. One must instead now worry about this
intermediary person, and cultivate a relationship with that person as the source
of one’s sustenance which keeps one alive, instead of with
Gaia. For that new person, be they king or slave or grocer,
is now the hand that feeds, and thus will ultimately have the power to dictate to
you what your morals are, and what decisions you must make for survival. And you
must follow their dictates, for you need what they have in order to survive. And
there is no guarantee that you will receive anything at all in return if things
do not go as planned, despite all the promises to the contrary. If there is someone
or something between oneself and nature as the source of one’s own sustenance, then
one can be held hostage by that person, or be made to work for it, or be forced
to make a payment of money, bodily use, or worse.
Such is the origin of government in all of its forms - an insidious intermediary
and gatekeeper between you and the things you need most to survive. Becoming an
intermediary between a person and the resources they need is a wonderful way to
exert control over that same person. And there are of course beings who seek to
control mankind in this way too, who are not human. They understand these methods
of control very well. They enact these methods in the same way as that of a farmer
who seeks to pen and control the animals in his barnyard. And it is these beings
who are the originators of the break with
Gaia that mankind experienced 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, as they seek to
control humanity, and
Gaia, and
the planet for their own ends, and those of their masters. There is a hidden history
of mankind on this planet: that of its true origins and the source of its fall and
degeneration. No other secret is more violently repressed, for it is their anonymity
which is the source of their dominance and power over humanity. As long as they
are able to secretly pull the strings of control in this way, they retain power
over the ignorant race of humanity within their grasp.
Now this Original Morality, this
Natura,
is nothing more than the proper way of acting in accordance with one’s own nature,
and the demands of
Gaia. And
this original morality also ensures one’s liberty in life as well, so that one is
beholden to the desires of no one else. Otherwise one can not accomplish one’s own
Will. All other moralities which come after the original morality of your ancestor’s
indigene are a result of one’s separation from Nature. Because of this separation,
these subsequent moralities are in actuality immoral, as they often reinforce one’s
perception of separateness from Nature. The further people are separated from Nature
in history, the further people are also separated from
Spirit. And the further people are separated from
Spirit, the further is the mass of humanity is generally
enslaved by a few rulers at the top. This separation from Nature, from the understanding
of the source of our origins, has progressed so far in our recent history that most
people who follow some spiritual path now have been taught that divinity is something
separate from themselves, and even separate from Nature. They have been taught that
their God sits somewhere outside of his creation, as does his Heaven. They have
been taught that there is no spirit in matter, that it is indeed lifeless, dead,
answering only to the laws of physics. They have been taught that all of what you
see is only an illusion, a trick of Maya, a trick of the mind or a trick of quantum
energy. Or they have been taught that some ascendancy is imminent, and we shall
all transcend away from this dense material world to some higher vibrational frequency,
leaving behind all of our pain and suffering here - whether it be in the form envisioned
by the New Age movement as a higher dimension or the heaven of Christianity makes
no difference.
All of these claims are other-worldly in nature, and attempt to separate in the
mind of the observer this place of life and some other imaginary place of more important
essence. None of these claims are true. There is no here and there. There is only
here - for
Spirit, for matter,
and for everything in-between. And there is only now. In the same way that a young
child is not yet aware of the enormity of the Universe, the only thing which keeps
most people from this awareness of the unity of
Spirit and matter is one’s experiential interaction of such
spiritual Realms which overlay our own. It is like saying that the air is a separate
realm from one’s own lungs, when the actuality is that the lungs depend upon the
air in order to give us life. The lungs evolved to use and operate within the air
itself. They are not separate, but inseparably interdependent.
So with this in mind, let us continue our statements about
Ophidian Cosmology with a few simple declarations.
All things are born, and change.
There is no separation between
Spirit
and Matter.
Spirit traverses all of the
Realms.
These
three simple statements hold the keys for those who struggle to understand the differences
between the Living Tradition of
Ophidian Thelema and all other traditions and philosophies which currently
occupy the minds of men. There are no ends, only beginnings and changes. The universe
has no end, any more than
Nuit
does. Therefore "there is no dread hereafter. There is only eternal dissolution
in the body of Nu."
The eternal dissolution in the body of Nu is a reference to the
Underworld. Since human bodies are born and then die, the
minds of those bodies have a difficult time seeing beyond their own beginning and
ends. Humans mostly learn by mirroring and copying what they see around themselves,
from other people and the environment in which they live. These things provide the
framework for their understanding. These minds therefore reason that because they
had a beginning and an end, then so too must everything else. There must have been
a God who created the universe or a big bang, which is in fact function like exactly
the same. Yet in opposition to all this no one dares to suggest the most obvious
and logical observation of all - that there is no end to the universe, either in
distance or in time. It is truly endless. The Universe is
Nuit, and She has always been, and will always be, emerging,
changing, manifesting and receding.
On top of that, there is no separation between
Spirit and matter. "Let there be no difference made among
you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt."
All matter, energy and all living things are the product or expression of
Spirit in our Realm.
Ophidian Cosmology is not one of Advaitism or Polytheism, but rather
one of Animism. All things come from
Spirit, but not all
Spirit
is manifest in our Realm. And there are many, many Realms which are just as real
as our own, but with which we have no direct access with our current bodies and
their senses. Our bodies, our vehicles, are a product of this Realm within which
we exist in, and so are therefore limited in what we can perceive in that manner.
The senses we have evolved with are limited to what they can detect in this Realm.
This is why the
Triangle of Manifestation
is so important, as it allows for the creation of a
Liminal Gateway between Realms, through which spirit energy
may move and manifest. For
Spirit,
unlike the biological body, is able to traverse the Realms.
And
so all physical manifestations of matter and life are the result of
Spirit and its actions. This is very difficult for the modern
mind to conceive of. Science has indoctrinated the people into believing that there
are non-living forces. Science admonishes you to believe that things such as gravity,
time, electricity, and light are the result of physics alone, which in turn were
set in motion by the force of the so-called "big bang". However it is true that
something can not come from nothing, so therefore the Big Bang as popularly understood
is impossible. But it begs the question then, even if the Universe is infinite,
and has always existed in eternal change and transformation, what is the origin
of these forces of nature and the matter all around us?
The spirits are adamant that there are no non-living forces. They assure us that
these forces are indeed all products of life itself. Take for example one’s breath,
one’s exhalation. It moves out through the air as we exhale, creating a movement,
a force, which can be felt like wind. Is this a non-living force? No, it was created
by a living being, as a result of its own volition, its own movement. Its origin
was in a living being. So therefore the source for this force was
Spirit. And the ground beneath your feet, from where does
it come? What spirit source made it? The soil is made of millions upon millions
of living creatures and dead things and the excrement of those things. It is made
from the products of life. And it is no different for the higher forces, than for
the lower.
Nuit, the
Grandmother, the
Spirit of the Universe, is the source for many of those forces which
science considers to be the forces of physics alone, the so-called forces of Nature.
These are forces such as gravity, movement, light and the illusion of time. They
emanate from Her being, in the same way that one's own body emanates heat by it’s
own manifestation. And so it goes, throughout all of known existence, in a myriad
of infinite forms and combinations - all things which exist are the result of
Spirit manifesting into matter.
There are higher sources like those of
Nuit, and lower sources, like those of your own breath, and endless sources
in-between. In this way, all of reality, all things, are created by
Spirit.
So as we have seen, all things in our Realm are the result of
Spirit manifesting into Matter. All things are born, and
change endlessly throughout a boundless universe which will never end. All things
are animated by
Spirit, from
the greatest to the smallest, from the Universe to the Planet to your local place
of living on
Gaia. And we call
this local, living part of your environment the Genius Loci, the Intelligence or
Spirit of a Place.
All
Heka begins with the place within
Gaia where you are, as an incarnate
Spirit. It must be acknowledged
and included in your
Heka, as
an ally to your work in order to increase its potency. All natural places upon and
within
Gaia have a spirit, a
living consciousness which can be interacted with. And this fact is also seen in
the workings of your own body. All places in your body are made up of living things,
which form tissue and colonies and which have their own type of awareness and communication.
These many instances of awareness make up the senses and feelings of your body,
and contribute to your overall consciousness on one level. And the same is true
for Galaxies and Universes - they too are made up of smaller, individual instances
of consciousness and awareness. And so it is no different for the Genius Loci. It
is made up of many different types of life which lend consciousness to a place.
It is the Genius Loci of a place which is the most immediate connection to all other
life and spirit in your realm. It holds
Filas to
Gaia, and She
holds
Filas to all living beings
upon and within Her, and to the Universe beyond. This is the path of
Heka, and its most immediate gateways: Self, Genius Loci,
Gaia, and beyond.
Now this Genius Loci is in reality a composite of Organic Spirit Energies and Discarnate
Intelligences. All living spirits and beings that exist in a place, like a field
or a lake or a woods, by their very existence contribute over the course of their
life to the Genius Loci, the Spirit of a Place. As time passes, the complexity of
the Genius Loci changes as more and more living spirits are born and die within
that place. This is why places that are very ancient evoke the feelings of awe and
reverence within people that they do. This is not imagination or some accident.
Rather, one is encountering a very ancient and potent Genius, built up over hundreds
and thousands of years by all of the beings that lived there. Your own colony of
consciousness is reacting to its presence, and interacting with it on levels which
evoke an awareness in your Waters. This is perceived as a feeling about the place
as one encounters it.
As
a Genius Loci develops and changes over time, it forms varying levels of awareness
and consciousness which can be interacted with in many ways. Some develop protective
functions and methods of interacting with their environment, like all things do
in Nature. They attempt to guard themselves and their being. In addition to these
guardians, other spirits are attracted to places which suit their natures, and often
find their way to different Genius Loci. They join with the forces of the Genius
Loci, adding to its flavor. In this way some places have many different beings which
can be communicated with, in addition to the presiding Genius of the Place, such
as Elementals.
Humans can have a positive effect upon a place, or as is more often the case nowadays,
a very negative affect. When people tear down and destroy the local ecosystem in
order to build cities, factories and the like, they destroy the guardians, spirits
and Genius of the Place. They disrupt the capacity for life there, and therefore
the capacity for spirit. They attack and destroy the biological basis for these
colonies of consciousness. The original keepers of the natural morality, those Genius
Loci and guardian spirits, are destroyed. These ancient and wonderful places of
spirit then become empty wastelands, devoid of life except for the humans living
there with their machines. Demons and other such entities enjoy these voids very
much and feed upon the death of the spirits which once dwelled there. They are drawn
to the imbalance of life energy, just as diseases and parasites flourish within
a dysfunctional body. In this way they move into the emptiness, happy to feed and
influence what they can in these places. This is one of the many reasons why there
is so much violence and injustice in urban areas, and very little natural morality
amongst those who dwell there. With this in mind, it should now be clear why it
is so very difficult to establish genuine spirit communication in urban areas. Demons
and other imbalanced entities are much easier to access in these locations. And
of course they are always happy to masquerade as something other than what they
actually are, in order mask themselves and their feeding. These imbalanced presences
are present due to the lack of Genius Loci, and the proper guardians of a place
which work much like white blood cells do in the body.
If one lives in an urban area and is pursuing
Heka, then it is incumbent upon them to help redevelop the Genius Loci of
their area. This can be done in many different ways, but should always start with
the creation of as much life as possible for spirit to indwell. Attention and care
should be given to the plants and animals of the area, and habitats should be reestablished,
no matter how small. Help to build up the simple, natural and good plants and animals
of the place. These creatures will form the first rebalancing energies of one’s
place, setting the tone for the future of your ecosystem.
Following this, a dedication of one’s plot of land should take place, in one’s own
words to the Genius of the Place. One should dedicate themselves as a Guardian to
the Genius Loci, with the promise to help cultivate its energy. One should make
this dedication at the four cardinal directions of one’s property, with the utmost
sincerity and dedication. Then, one should call in the spirits of a place, and invite
such entities which wish to function as guardians of the place to come and do so.
Make an altar to the Genius Loci, and place small offerings there to the Spirit
of the Place and the other spirits which have come. These offerings can be the first
fruits of the Spring garden, or other tokens of importance which help create a
Fila between your own life,
and that of the Genius Loci. Give and take is the rule, not take and use. In this
way, as one gives it a little of one’s own kind and gentle energy, so it too will
give back. This reciprocity is important, and will help one to later gain the trust
of the guardians which may come to the Genius Loci. But first one should start with
this dedication, and then lots of willful patience.
In such a way one can begin to interact with the Spirit of the Place in which one
lives. If the relationship is well maintained, the Genius Loci will also act as
a guardian to the people who live upon its land and that help to maintain its existence.
This relationship may also lead to the discovery of many other spirits and entities
that will come to inhabit the place, once they are made welcome and a suitable place
for their presence exists. And it may also one day give you access to the Elementals
and Angels through the Genius Loci, if this is cultivated properly.
Now all of
Gaia is filled with
Living Spirits, which are the incarnated life energies of all of the species of
animals, plants and insects on the planet. All of these Living Spirits are tethered
to a higher unmanifest
Spirit
which is the source of their life energy. These Living Spirits are individual and
unique in their incarnations, and are experiential in their natures. The term "experiential
nature" means that they may grow and change based upon their own choices, experiences
or the impact of their environment on their existence. Each act or experience in
the course of their life changes their body, emotions, mind or life force in some
way, for better or worse. All life is experiential in this way, and this is why
Spirit incarnates in this Realm.
This is how
Spirit grows and
transforms itself.
Not all Living Beings, however, have the same awareness, consciousness or autonomy
of motion in this Realm. Obviously plants do not seem to have the same level of
conscious autonomy or awareness that insects have. Most insects do not have the
same intelligence and self-awareness that many animals have. And many animals do
not seem to have the same conscious higher self-awareness, forethought and spiritual
autonomy that humans have. Therefore one can say that the manifestation of spiritual
energy of the Living Spirits in our Realm is limited by the body in which it is
incarnated into. In addition, these limitations of the body are determined by the
physical evolution of the species.
And this evolution is a product
of nothing more than life energy interacting with matter over great periods of time,
and the necessary transformations which result from this interaction.
As these Living Spirits move and interact with each other and their environment,
they produce Organic Spirit Energies. These energies can be singular in their nature,
or compound and complex. As Living Spirits move, act, desire, feel and exert their
Will upon matter and their surrounding environment, they create energies that linger,
move or settle into the environment around them. The energies are the tangible results
of life as it moves and acts and does all of things that living beings do. Most
of these energies which exude from life are short-lived and are not strong enough
to remain separate from the environment for long periods of time. They can also
become diluted or changed. Often they quietly fade into the background matrix of
the environment, such as the example of one’s exhalation of breath from one’s body.
However, intense, directed and willed acts by Living Beings can create longer enduring
energies in the environment that stand out stronger than the other energies of a
place. Sometimes these energies, like a Genius Loci, can be seen and felt to have
purpose, direction, force and even intelligence. In this way they can appear somewhat
like an autonomous spirit and be communicated with in the same manner, but in actuality
these Organic Spirit Energies are more of a force than a being. The difference is
that a being has an autonomous
Will,
while a force does not. A being is living, while a force is the result of the volition
of living beings or
Spirit.
These forces sometimes may have intelligence, but not choice.
It
is these Organic Spirit Energies, the forces which are the result of the actions
of life, which make up the larger energies and forces of the universe. These forces
are the result of the actions of Living Spirits. And it is also these energies which
in part make up the force and intelligence of the Genius Loci of a place. The
Shades of the dead are also
Organic Spirit Energies, shed by the Living
Spirit at moment of death. A
Shade
is in actuality the
Persona
complex of the person left in the material Realm after the death of the body and
the release of the
Spirit.
Shades provide an excellent
example of how a force can also have a type of intelligence which can be communicated
with. As an Organic Spirit Energy, the
Shade continues to exhibit action, but not free will. It can no longer experience
and change of its own volition. As Dead Spirit Energies, these ghosts continue to
move in their previous way of life after death, but they are now disembodied and
static images of the dynamic and growing Living Spirits that they once were. They
are untethered from their
Spirit,
their original source of autonomy, consciousness and volition. As
Shades, they do not know anything more than they knew when
they were alive, nor do they continue to grow with experience. And like all forces,
the stronger Dead Spirit Energies remain more tangible for longer periods of time,
while weaker versions tend to wane more quickly into the background of a given place.
It should be here noted here that
Adepts
who have developed a very strong
Fila
to their
Spirits over the course
of their lifetimes are often able to continue the work of their
Will beyond death. The
Shades of these
Adepts
are called a
Genius, and they
can continue to grow and develop to some extent after death. A
Fila to their
Spirit
is maintained to some degree after death. The most advanced of
Adepts, dedicated and bound to certain deities, are able
to develop a Deified
Genius
which can continue to function in service of that Deity long after the death of
its body. The
Shades of the
many incarnations of the
Nine
function as Deified
Genii,
and continue to serve
Babalon
as
Pashtuns, Initiators and
Guardians as needed throughout the centuries. They exhibit many special powers and
can move between the Realms in Her Service. In this way the
Nine are sometimes even more powerful and valuable in death
than they were even in life.
Familial Spirits are another type of Organic Spirit Energy, which are produced from
Living Spirits. However it should be noted that these Familial Spirits are not the
same as what is termed Familiar Spirits, despite the closeness of the spelling of
the words. It is only in recent times, since the Middle Ages and the Christian Empire,
that Familiar Spirits came to be thought of as a Witch’s Familiar. These Witch Familiars
or devil spirits were believed to be embodied in an animal that accompanied the
Witch or devil worshipper. Historically however, Familiar Spirits were originally
the guardians or protectors of a family, its bloodline (gens in Latin), a tribe,
or a nation of people. In this way, being connected to the family or bloodline,
they were "Familial", not "Familiar". These Familial Spirits were common in most
of the Pagan civilizations. A bloodline in a family would have had a guardian spirit
to which the family would have given worship to. In reality this actually meant
they would give attention and devotion to it in order to help cultivate and develop
its power and Organic Spirit Energy so that it could protect all people in the family
over generations. As before with the Genius Loci, this was a reciprocal act. One
had to give in order to get. There was no bargaining here as is so often the case
in modern so-called magick, just simple reciprocity. These Familial Spirits therefore
are Organic Spirit Energies, created and fed by the family members to help protect
and guide their families throughout the generations. They are forces of identity
and guardianship for a family or group of people, and have an intelligence of sorts
which can be communicated with.
Now
this same formula for creating a protective spirit of one’s bloodline was also used
in connection with larger families or tribes, cities, nations and whole races of
people. In this way one might have the Spirit of the Race of People, such as the
Nazis created for themselves with the people of Germany, utilizing Hitler as the
medium and focal-point for that entity. Or one might have the Spirit or Guardian
of a City that would receive worship and devotion from those who were under its
protection, as was the case with the Goddess Roma. The impulse towards Patriotism
in a country in general is a modern leftover of this original spiritual practice
which created a
Fila to the members
of the country who actively participated in its development and continuation. This
feeling of patriotism which causes people to become so emotional comes from the
Spirit of the Country which they have bonded themselves to. It is a spiritual phenomenon.
The Spirit of the Country literally moves in one’s Waters, when the
Fila is manifest, thereby causing the emotional reactions
and feelings that it does.
Yet another type of Organic Spirit Energy is that of the Elemental Forces. We speak
here of the Elemental Forces, not the Elemental Beings, for there is a difference.
These Elemental Forces are also sometimes just called the Elements, as opposed to
the beings which are called Elementals. These Elemental energies are the result
of the process of the evolution of the various species upon this planet. The first
of the Elemental Energies, which is that of the Element of Earth, is apparent in
all species down to single-cell organism and plants. This is the most simple form
of Living Energy embodied in physical matter, and gives the body its senses to perceive
and interact with the world around it. It also provides the instincts for the body
in order to survive in its environment. The Elemental energy of Earth is present
in all species of plants and animals on this planet.
The Elemental Energies of Water are always the next to develop in the evolutionary
process, and this higher level of spirit energy gives rise to the emotional reactions
in the first insects and animals. The emotions were an important part of the memory
imprinting process which allowed for a new level of consciousness to develop beyond
the basic instincts which are attached to sensory perception. If a creature has
memory, then it also has emotions and feelings of some sort. The emotions are a
tool for conscious navigation through memory and behavioral responses, as well as
a communication channel for the
Spirit.
The Elemental Energies of Water are present in all animals and insects on this planet.
The Elemental Energies of Air developed next in the evolutionary process, giving
rise to the functions of thought, logic and self-awareness which are present in
the animals and higher species of the planet. Attachment to objects, tool use and
problem solving are indicators of the Air stage of evolution, as well as forms of
communication, including calls, grunts and body movements. Complex social hierarchy
and greater self awareness are the result of Air energy in the evolutionary process.
The final Elemental Energy to emerge in the evolutionary process is Fire, which
gives the embodied Living
Spirit
some conscious awareness of its connection to its higher unmanifest
Spirit. These impulses first appeared in the evolutionary
process as fetish worship and rituals of purpose connected to their animal actions,
such as the burial of the dead. This often evolves into Animism, then Polytheism,
Monotheism, Atheism and a host of other Philosophical and Religious explorations
of the nature of meaning, purpose and connection to the Higher Unmanifest
Spirit. Morals, traditions and rituals often develop out
of these religious and philosophical explorations. These philosophical and religious
models are often the results of Magical explorations which interact directly with
spirit energies. The powers of
Heka
become available to a species who has evolved to the level of Fire energy in their
evolutionary journey.
Such are the endless myriads of Organic Spirit Energies which are created by the
presence of life within this Realm. These energies manifest themselves as Genius
Loci, as intelligences of places, and as
Shades of the dead. They can form from the Familial bonds of the ancestors,
the tribe, or entire races and countries. They have formed forces of Elemental energies
which were forged by the evolutionary process of life itself, and they also appear
as the result of all of the natural forces of the Universe. These forces of Nature
include things such as the winds and the storms, the ground and the stones, the
sky and the planets, or day and night. All things which are the result of life,
their forces and their movements, are Organic Spirit Energies in this way. And many
of them have intelligences of their own, because they are the result of
Spirit manifesting as life in matter. And it is in this way
that all things which exist, all forces and every bit of matter are ultimately the
result of
Spirit manifesting
not only in our Realm, but also in all of the others.
