Ceremonial Magic Unveiled.pdf

CEREMONIAL MAGIC UNVEILED

By Dion Fortune

This article first appeared in the Occult Gazette in January I933 and has not been available for

a wider audience since. It is of particular relevance in revealing D.F's considered opinion about

The Golden Dawn as well as Aleister Crowley.

If I read the signs of the times aright, the veil of

the Temple of the Mysteries is being drawn back

at the present moment. There are phases in the

spiritual life of mankind just as there are weather

cycles extending over periods of years, and the

tide which began to move during the first decade

of the twentieth century is gathering head as it

proceeds. The signs of the times are to be seen

in the publication of certain books on magic in

which the genuine secrets are given, and given

in a form available for any reader with a capacity

for metaphysical thoughts. Among the most

important of these are Israel Regardie's two

books: The Garden of Pomegranates and The

Tree of Life .

The Garden of Pomegranates , oddly enough,

deals with the Tree of Life, the famous glyph of

the Cabbalists, which is used as a cardЀindex

system in which are filed all ideas concerning

man and the Universe according to certain

wellЀunderstood systems of association, and

which by means of the pattern of its

arrangement, is used to discover the

correspondences and relationships between

them.

The Cabbala is increasingly being recognised as the basis of Western Occultism. Anyone who

wants to appreciate esoteric philosophy as taught in that system, and more especially anyone

who wants to make practical use of it, whether in magic or meditation, needs a working

knowledge of the Tree of Life. Information on this decidedly recondite subject has hitherto been

to seek in a number of books, some of them rare and hard to come by, and many of them

confused and elusive in their wording. Mr. Regardie has given, in a lucid and concise form, and

Messrs. Rider have issued at a moderate price, a most admirable handbook on the technical

system of the Tree. It is lucid, comprehensive and concise, and performs a very useful service

in correlating the Cabbalistic, Eastern, and Egyptian systems. It is thus possible for the student

to trace out the interrelation between the two systems which are worked together in the West,

the Egyptian and Cabbalistic; and for the Theosophist to recognise the classification with which

he is familiar, when it is applied to the glyph of the Tree in the technical methods of Western

occultism.

Mr. Regardie has the inestimable advantage of knowing the Hebrew language; in this, as an

occultist, he is unique; for although most occultists working the Western tradition have enough

Hebrew to transliterate the Words of Power for inscription on pentacles and talismans or for

numerological work, they number no Hebrew scholars among their ranks, but are all dependent

on translations; even MacGregor Mathers and Wynn Westcott did not translate from the

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

original Hebrew but from Latin versions, and they have saddled the Western schools with some

tiresome errors of transliteration and pronunciation.

Mr. Regardie gives a classification of the Tree and the constitution of man according to the

Cabbalists, and of the correspondences between them, which is much more lucid and

illuminating even than that given in McGregor Mathers' admirable introductory essay to The

Qabalah Unveiled , for he gives the correspondences in terms of modern psychology as well

as of metaphysics and the psychic states.

The sections of the book, however, which will be of chief interest to students of the occult, and

which will cause bitter heartburnings in certain quarters, are his chapters on the attributions and

correspondences of the Ten Holy Sephiroth and the Twenty-two Paths between them. These

attributions have been among the special preserves of certain occult schools; but Mr. Regardie

gives them, even to the jealously guarded secret of the correct attribution of the Tarot trumps.

There will certainly be heartburnings!

Mr. Regardie does not specifically state his authorities, but it is unquestionably the system

taught in the "Order of the Golden Dawn" , founded by the late S. L. McGregor Mathers, that

he is using. If I have been a Rehoboam who has scourged occult secrecy with whips, Mr.

Regardie is a Jeroboam who is using scorpions!

However, he has my unqualified blessing, for what it is worth to him. There is no legitimate

reason that I have ever been able to see for keeping these things secret. If they have any value

as an aid to spiritual development, and I for one believe that they have the highest value, there

can be no justification for withholding them from the world. The only reason of which I am

aware, and one which I suspect of being a weighty one with those

who have so long sat resolutely upon the lid of occult secrecy, is that

for purposes of priestcraft and prestige a secret system is a useful

weapon. A weighty reason, this, human nature being what it is, but

not a justification in the eyes of those who have the welfare of

humanity at heart.

It has always been the custom of the "Golden Dawn" to wrap itself in

the utmost secrecy. To a certain extent this secrecy is unquestionably

necessary, for many eminent people have at different times belonged

to the Order, and they would not have dared to have done so if they

could not have been sure of preserving the secret of their interest in matters occult.

Consequently the strict secrecy concerning the names of members and the places of meeting

was and always will be essential.

Secrecy is also necessary concerning initiation rites if they are to be psychologically effective;

for they should have an element of surprise for the candidate; and the possession of their

secrets, from which the rest of the world is excluded, builds up a group mind out of the pooled

mentalities of the initiated brethren according to certain well-understood psychological laws.

Secrecy concerning practical formulae of ceremonial magic is also advisable, for if they are

used indiscriminately, the virtue goes out of them. All these formulae have unwritten astral

workings attached to them; if they are used in ignorance by the uninitiated, and without the

astral workings, the magnetism which has been worked up in the symbols is given off and not

replaced; but when they are used by the trained occultist, who performs the astral workings

with power, more magnetism is worked up than is given off, and the symbols become stronger.

That is why the old formulae, which have been used by generations of trained adepts, are so

extraordinarily powerful.

Beyond this I do not think occult secrecy ought to go, and I am certainly not prepared to assist

it. It is not possible to keep back the tide. Save for the reservations regarding the actual rituals,

the day of occult secrecy is over. Whosoever profit by the teachings ought to have them.

Mr. Regardie handles, very wisely, the section of his book dealing with the ceremonial rites, for

he gives the principles without the actual formulae. The only formula he gives in full is that of

the Banishing Ritual of the Lesser Pentagram. I was at first inclined to quarrel with him for

giving this, for one feels instinctively that a formula which is messed about by all and sundry will

not long retain its value for anybody. But on second thoughts I am inclined to acquit him. It is

this formula which is given to the student immediately on initiation, long before he is taught any

practical working, in order that he may be in a position to protect himself in case of astral

trouble. If Mr. Regardie is justified in drawing back the veil at all, then he is, undoubtedly,

justified in providing the necessary protection against anything untoward that may come

through that veil. The Lesser Pentagram is of the nature of a fire extinguisher, and it is very

necessary to have some such device handy, when one adventures into such highly charged

levels of the Unseen as are contacted by the methods he describes.

Now what is going to be the outcome of this general disclosure

of the secrets of the Mysteries?

As in most drastic happenings, the results will be mixed; but it

is my belief that the good will far outweigh the evil. That some

folk will burn their fingers experimenting with that which they

do not understand I have no doubt, but on the whole the gain

to serious students will be inestimable. Mr. Regardie has done

his work admirably, both in the spirit and in the letter. The Tree

of Life is a book which it would be difficult to praise too highly;

it is going to be one of the classics of occultism.

When the secrets of the Mysteries are given forth in this manner and with this spirit, I, for one,

decline to believe that they are either betrayed or profaned, but rather that the author is duly

accredited to speak on behalf of Those who can bind or loose, irrespective of tradition or, oaths

of secrecy. It is a curious fact that this is the third book of its kind to become available at the

present moment. I see from an article in the November number of this magazine that Foyle's

are issuing Crowley's Magick in a cheap edition, thus rendering it available for the general

student, who has probably never heard of, or could not afford to purchase, the privately printed

edition which appeared in Paris a couple of years ago. The third person of this unholy trinity of

revealers of the Mysteries is my humble self, who has been doing much the same thing as Mr.

Regardie in a series of articles on the Cabbala which has been running in my own magazine,

The Inner Light .

I know that I undertook this work under a strong inner compulsion that this teaching must now

be given out to the world; that it was the will of Those who held the keys that the door should

be set open in these matters, and that we were about to enter on an entirely new phase of

occult activity. So far as I can see, ceremonial magic is coming out into the open, as witness

even the futile operations of Mr. Harry Price on the Brocken, concerning which I had something

to say in a previous issue of the Occult Review. One does not see sporadic manifestations of

the same thing springing up here and there in entire independence; they come from a common

source. This source I believe to be one of those high spring tides in things spiritual which, from

time to time, visit our earth. For any organisation to try and close the sluiceЀgates against it by

oaths of secrecy, is to keep back the Atlantic with a broom.

It is, therefore, important for those who have knowledge of the subject to recognise the change

which has taken place in the occult field, lest that field be abandoned to the operations of

quacks. Now that so much has been said by both Regardie and Crowley, it is necessary to say

a little more, and so elucidate the whole situation. It must be obvious to anyone who compares

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

them that The Garden of Pomegranates and Tree of Life , by Regardie; Magick , by Crowley;

and The Mystical Qabalah , by myself, are all dealing with the same system, and the question

naturally arises, who has cribbed from which? The answer to this is very simple; the system

dealt with is not the private property of any one of us, but is that which I have frequently

referred to in my writings as the Western Esoteric Tradition. I have always been guarded in my

references to this matter, because I took some pretty stringent initiation oaths, and I do not

care for the responsibility of breaking those oaths; but, as previously noted, I have never

pretended ignorance of, or misled any one concerning matters that others had taken the

responsibility of making public. I have never had a taste for priestcraft, whatever other sins as

chela or guru may justly be ascribed to me. Mr. Regardie's revelation frees my hands

considerably further, for it does not appear to me that there is very much he has left unsaid. I

expect that the pontiffs of the mysteries will tell their neophytes that his books are inaccurate

and incomplete; but I think they will find, after they have served ten years for Leah and another

ten for Rachel, as I was made to do, that they are neither inaccurate nor incomplete, and a very

great deal better put together than the official knowledge papers and side lectures.

Now concerning the nature of these mysterious mysteries; as I have already explained, I am

wrapped up in oaths of secrecy like a cat in a flyЀpaper, but I do not feel that this debars me

from quoting the published works of other writers. When Mrs. McGregor Mathers, in her

introduction to the second edition of her husband's translation of The Qabalah Denudata

refers, in explicit terms, to the mystery school he founded, and intimates that admission may be

obtained thereto by applying to her, care of her publishers, and when she publishes a pamphlet

for propaganda purposes in the United States which is even more explicit, who am I that I

should plead ignorance of the existence of such an Order? And when W B. Yeats says, in his

autobiography, that the Order founded by Mr. Mathers was called the “Golden Dawn” , am I to

pretend that I do not know what the mysterious initials G. D. stand for? Am I also to pretend, in

view of what he has to say of his experiences while he was a member, and of the confirmatory

remarks of George Moore in his autobiographical book, Ave atque Vale , that I do not know that

the “Golden Dawn” concerns itself with ceremonial magic? Does my initiation oath require me

to deny these matters or to profess my ignorance of them? If so, it requires me to tell lies.

The "Golden Dawn" is alleged to owe its origin to the

discovery by Mathers of a set of mysterious cipher

manuscripts; these manuscripts exist, for I have talked with

trustworthy persons who have seen them; but as they were

in cipher, they were not able to bear testimony concerning

their contents. In these manuscripts Mathers is supposed

to have found the outline of the "Golden Dawn" rituals and

the system of correspondences which is the key to its

teaching, including the correct attribution of the Tarot

trumps on the Tree of Life, which enables them to be linked

Lip with the astrological signs, a secret that students have

Iong sought to discover. It is this system which Crowley

uses in his Equinox , 777 , Book Four , and his recently

published Magick ; which Regardie uses in both his books,

and which I am using in my Mystical Qabalah , now

appearing serially in my own magazine. We have none of

us cribbed from each other, but have all drawn upon the

Mathers' manuscripts.

I personally drew direct, because I possess these

manuscripts; but I did not take the responsibility of

publishing them, or any of their contents, but worked from

Crowley's 777 , as I acknowledged in my articles, using my

knowledge of the Mathers manuscript for counterЀchecking

purposes. I may say that I found Crowley's books to be

accurate. He himself does not acknowledge his sources in

his recently published Magick , but in his Equinox, now out of

print, he expressly declares that he is making public the "Golden Damn" system as

commanded by the Secret Chiefs. Regardie himself acknowledges his indebtedness to the

published works of Mathers, Wynn Westcott and Crowley; but as Mathers and Wynn Westcott

never put any of these correspondences into their published works, and Regardie could not

have been in direct touch with the G. D. or he would have known it was not defunct, I conclude

he has drawn his information from Crowley's "A.A" , which is simply the G. D. system under

another name or so it appears to me to be from what its founder says about it.

Thus I think we may claim to have traced out this system of correspondences and its

antecedents: Crowley and I drew direct from Mathers "Golden Dawn", and Regardie drew from

Crowley's "A. A".

The next point we have to solve in unravelling our mystery is the relationship of the different

characters in this drama to each other. Crowley and Mathers quarrelled. Exactly why, I do not

know; incompatibility of temperament was probably the fundamental cause, whatever the

actual occasion of their break may have been. Crowley then started the publication of his

magazine, The Equinox, which came out twice yearly for five years in England and made a

fresh start in America after the War with one volume, but never got any further. These eleven

volumes are highly prized by the more advanced students of occultism, and the complete set is

hard to come by and commands high prices. Some of the contents, however, have been

reprinted in Magick, together with a certain amount of new material.

In this magazine Crowley deliberately gave away all that he possessed of Mathers' secrets,

including some of his rituals, and tore Mathers' character to shreds. I have never met either of

the persons concerned in this dispute, but it appears to me that the abuse Crowley heaps on

Mathers in the pages of his magazine is far more likely to reflect on himself than it is upon

Mathers. In his criticisms of the manner in which Mathers conducted his organisation he is, I

think, upon surer ground, for I found exactly the same problems confronting me when I myself

joined it some years after he left. Practical teaching from official sources was conspicuous by

its absence, and unless one was lucky enough to have a personal friend among its members

with a gift of exposition, one was left high and dry. One was put through the ceremonies, given

the bare bones of the system in the knowledge lectures and a few commentaries on them

called side lectures, for the most part of very inferior quality, and left to one's own devices. The

glory had departed in the days when I knew the Order, for most of its original members were

dead or withdrawn; it had suffered severely during the war, and was manned mainly by widows

and greyЀbearded ancients; and the widows of its founders were somewhat in the position of

the widow of a certain famous artist when she was asked if meant to carry on her husband's

business. The cloak of Elijah did not necessarily descend on Mrs. Elishah. Nevertheless,

anyone with any psychic perceptions at all could not fail to realise that there was power in the

ceremonies and formulae; and anyone who made a study of them also speedily found out that

in the system of correspondences taught in the G. D. they had got something of inestimable

value.

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