The Experience of Water

Purpose of this Article

I wrote this article for the simple purpose of documenting my own experience with the forces of Elemental Water as I worked to master them outside the confines of an established Order, working primarily from the material of the Golden Dawn with some additions from other sources.

The Nature of Water

By mastering Air, one becomes familiar with its nature. Traditional literature ascribes to Air the qualities of being cool and moist. Water is perceived as the being one of the denser of the elements, and it is associated with emotions, the subconscious mind and deep mental processes. By working with water we directly experience, stabilize and equilibrate the forces of elemental water in our minds, displayed through the ebb and flow of our emotions.

Experiencing Water

For the duration of my work with the Element of Water, I daily, for the period of a week, performed the LBRP. Then I turned to face south and traced an Invoking Pentagram of Water and recited the Prayer of the Undines. Then I sat upon the ground and visualized the Pentagram as a door into a realm entirely composed of elemental Water, through which an amount of 'watery' energy would flow, filling first my ritual space and then myself with Watery qualities. I would meditate thus for a time, then expel the energy from my body and perform the Middle Pillar Ritual, following which I would trace a Banishing Pentagram of Water. After that I would conclude my daily work. At the end of that week I conjured the Archangel Gabriel and asked to be initiated into the Sphere of the Element of Water.

The Lessons of Water

The impact of this initiation was somewhat subtle, but it was more obvious in retrospect. The watery forces largely played out by causing me to experience the more negative emotions to which I am prone, specifically targeting my unresolved romantic feelings for a certain woman, as well as corresponding feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness, loneliness and other such things. This persisted for a period of time of about a week, but at the end these feelings largely dissipated and were replaced by a greater calmness. On one hand, I feel like these feelings were like a poison purged from my soul, but I also sometimes feel like there is a well of that very poison in my heart, like a wound that won’t heal. I’m not done here.

On another note, I noticed that acting like water and just going with the flow results in life going smoother. The Taoist principle of effortless action comes to mind, doing without doing. We feel the tides of life most strongly when we stand against them.

The Experience of Air

The Nature of Air

By mastering Air, one becomes familiar with its nature. Traditional literature ascribes to Air the qualities of being moist and warm. Air is perceived as the lightest of the elements, acting as a bridge between fire, water and earth. Intellect, mind, and psychology are associated with Air. To Air is ascribed dreams, visions, skrying, psychic abilities and the astral plane. A person’s sense of self is under the aegis of the element of Air. By working with Earth we arrive at a solid foundation in our material life. By working with Air we stabilize and purify our mental life.

Experiencing Air

For the duration of my work with the Element of Air, I daily, for the period of a week, performed the LBRP. Then I turned to face north and traced an Invoking Pentagram of Air and recited the Prayer of the Sylphs. Then I sat upon the ground and visualized the Pentagram as a door into a realm entirely composed of elemental Air, through which an amount of 'airy' energy would flow, filling first my ritual space and then myself with Airy qualities. I would meditate thus for a time, then expel the energy from my body and perform the Middle Pillar Ritual, following which I would trace a Banishing Pentagram of Air. After that I would conclude my daily work. At the end of that week I conjured the Archangel Rapheal and asked to be initiated into the Sphere of the Element of Air.

The Lessons of Air

Air was an interesting elemental experience for me, but a powerful one. For the duration of my work, I spent a preponderance of time on philosophical questions. I questioned who I was and how I define myself. I put a fair amount of time into studying Buddhism, described by some an intellectual religion. Interestingly, I had tried to study this religion before but had been put off by a number of philosophical concepts I hadn’t been able to understand. This time, however, I had no trouble understanding the concepts in question and I have adopted a number of them. I also had reason to question my self-identity. I came to realize the futility of defining myself based on what others think of me, on my relationships with others. I’ve come to a fuller understanding of my mind, the nature of my being and exactly who I am. Last but not least, I gained vision of my own flaws and imperfections. No longer do I listen to the great magicians of old talk about the need to purify and balance the soul in order to pursue the Great Work and think “that doesn’t apply to me. I’m already better than everyone else.” I have the higher vision that clearly reveals exactly WHY I should pursue the Great Work; I know what needs fixed within me.

Evoking the archangel Auriel

I followed up the initiatory Work of my last post by evoking the archangel Auriel and asking for initiation into the Sphere of the Element of Earth. This became a 7 day long process in which Auriel frequently visited me in dreams and visions, making changes to my aura and subtle anatomy that I still don't fully appreciate.

The evocation itself, however, was one of the more powerful spiritual experiences of my life. It is difficult to put into words, but the thing that stands out most from that encounter is the fact that I went into it smug, convinced of my own superiority, believing that all the talk of needing to perfect oneself and overcome flaws did not apply to me. Suffice it to say that I was proven very wrong, as I was granted a brief vision of myself as perceived by Auriel, including all my flaws and frailties. I remember silently bowing my head, prepared to accept dismissal if that was all of which I was found worthy. Instead I was enfolded by glory, comforted in the knowledge that this was the burden of self-knowledge imposed on all Initiates, and that others had faced and overcome this very test. I, at that moment, truly understood the meaning and necessity of the Great Work, not as an abstract theory but a living Path to redemption and the Divine.

This was the beginning of my life as an Initiate, understanding and striving towards a goal few others appreciate. This was the final moment of magical childhood, as I left foolish things and ideas behind me to commence the Work in earnest.

The Experience of the Element of Earth

Introduction

The elemental system of initiation as practiced in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is one of the most well-known systems of spiritual development in ceremonial magick systems. It is recreated, echoed and repeated in many groups, texts and books that are popular and respected. This process begins after the Neophyte grade of preparation with the 1=10 degree, called Zelator. The Zelator grade focuses on elemental earth as it relates to the Initiate, on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. The completion of the Zelator grade provides personal mastery over Earth and all it relates to, primarily the physical world, wealth, the body, etc. By having attained control and mastery of this element, the Initiate proceeds to master the other elements in turn, bringing himself to a point of elemental harmony and equilibrium that is conductive to the pursuit of the Higher Mysteries.

Purpose of this Article

I wrote this article for the simple purpose of documenting my own experience with the forces of Elemental Earth as I worked to master them outside the confines of an established Order, working primarily from the material of the Golden Dawn with some additions from other sources. 

The Nature of Earth

By mastering Earth, one becomes familiar with its nature. Traditional literature ascribes to Earth the qualities of being cold and dry. Earth is perceived as the densest of the elements, entrapping the spiritual reality of existence and our own souls in a cage. Earth is perceived as heavy, cloying, suffocating and entrapping. Physical reality is associated with Earth and is considered to be impermanent, transitory and ultimately illusory. Eastern mystics teach non-attachment to reality and many who follow such teachings pursue a path of renunciation and hermitism; the Western magician, by contrast, simultaneously recognizes the entrapping nature of Earth and yet sees it as an aspect of existence, as Divine as any of the other elements. He seeks to escape the realm of Earth by mastering it and rendering it subservient to him, to support him as he ascends the Path of Return. My own meditations and experience has proven to my satisfaction that all of the above are true: Earth is the densest of the Elements, it surrounds our spirits in the form of flesh and allows us to interact with other flesh-shrouded spirits and the solidified Divinity that constitutes 'physical' reality. Physical reality is illusory and transitory, as nothing physical is eternal or perfect, but that doesn't mean it is irrelevant. We have as many lessons to learn in this world as in the deepest reaches of meditation, and the Initiate who totally eschews the earthy for the spiritual has missed these lessons. 

Experiencing Earth

For the duration of my work with the Element of Earth, I followed a daily schedule of work that consisted of the following: I began my daily work by sitting in a loose cross legged position. I relaxed my muscles and focused all my attention on my body and its stimuli. In the beginning it was difficult, as my muscles twitched randomly, my body itched maddeningly in places and I was overcome with discomfort. I did not, however, move at any point to relieve these sensations. Over time these feelings disappeared and I was able to remain sitting comfortably in this position for half an hour or more. After this exercise I proceeded to a meditation taken from Initiation into Hermetics, called thought control. I first held my awareness to simply observing what thoughts arose spontaneously in my mind. After a time these thoughts decreased in frequency and potency and I moved to intentionally holding my mind empty. After completing this exercise I performed a meditation to increase my patience. I focused my gaze and attention on a clock, focusing only on the movement of the second hand. Though I had great difficulty with this in the beginning, eventually I could maintain this for a period of 10 minutes with no anxiety or restlessness. After completing this exercise I performed the LBRP. Then I turned to face north and traced an Invoking Pentagram of Earth. Then I sat upon the ground and visualized the Pentagram as a door into a realm entirely composed of elemental Earth, through which an amount of 'earthy' energy would flow, filling first my ritual space and then myself with Earthy qualities. I would meditate thus for a time, then expel the energy from my body and perform the Middle Pillar Ritual, following which I would trace a Banishing Pentagram of Earth. After that I would conclude my daily work, which took approximately 45 minutes. 

The Lessons of Earth

I'm not certain whether the act of integrating Earth into myself gave rise to conditions that highlighted what I was seeking to learn, but one way or another the Universe gave me plenty of lessons in the subject! Without waxing too long here, suffice it to say that I experienced costly banking errors, repeated vehicular problems, a near-fatal car accident and a death in the family, all of which served to educate me in the properties of Earth, especially its transitory and impermanent nature. As a result of my experiences I have come to accept the nature of physical existence. I have learned to dispassionately accept and work to overcome hardships that before I would have raged impotently against. I have learned to value wealth and to manage it wisely, but not to define my entire life around it. I have learned that all things in this world pass away, and not to weep too bitterly. I feel that I have come to a level of mastery over Earth and that I have learned a good number of its lessons well.

Initiation

Not too long ago, I took a look at where I was at with my magical practice, and I was dissatisfied. When I began the magical studies, I gravitated towards the Golden Dawn, and for many years I pursued the work of that system as best I could; the LBRP, The Middle Pillar, the meditations and Knowledge Lectures and everything. But I wasn't making the progress I wanted. I wanted to undergo the initiations so I could consider myself to be a true Initiate. Naturally, I didn't live near a temple of kind, the constant bickering put me off the online Orders and I was skeptical of the self-initiation ideas I had seen. So I remained stagnant for a long time, until I became inspired by Rufus Opus' blog about his work with spirits and initiation. I realized I could pursue the Golden Dawn's initiatory structure with other techniques more suited to my situation. I resolved to seek initiations from the archangels of the Elements and, after that, the Planets. This has been my work for the last year or so.

Introduction

To any and all future readers of this blog (if I ever have any), I intend for this blog to be an outlet for my more scholarly side that enjoys writing articles on my research and work. You can expect to see articles about hermetics, qabbalah, evocation, initiations and various exercises in thaumaturgy and theurgy that I undertake or have performed in the past.

My work centers around the idea of the Great Work, apotheosis sought in through initiation and work with angels and spirits of other realms as outlined in the Corpus Hermetica and Neo-platonic magical traditions, with some influence from European grimoires and Golden Dawn-style syncretization. I also work with hoodoo sometimes, though not to a huge extent.

I am always learning more, changing ideas, and realizing my flaws and mistakes, hence the name "Opus Imperfectum", or "Imperfect Work". It's my own reminder of my humility.

Finally, it would be wrong not to pay respects to others in the magical blogging community from whom I have learned and been inspired; Jason Miller, Rufus Opus, Aaron Leitch, and many more whose blogs I have been reading for a long time.

Here's hoping this will be a fun experiece.