Magical States of Consciousness: Pathworking on the Tree of Life - Melita Denning 1985

Magical States of Consciousness

In every person, the qualities which are essential for the development of magical powers and the acceleration of spiritual evolution are innate: yet even people who recognize these potentials within themselves and aspire to realize them, still need effective means of progess. One requirement is a form of training which will enable the aspirant to recognize, to select, and to direct the will effectively to life’s underlying archetypal realities.

The tangled network of thoughts, feelings and sensations which fills day-to-day life constitutes a problem, since in its meshes attention, energy and resolve are scattered and dispersed. For dealing with this problem, one of the methods which has been recognized through the ages is an ascetic program of simplifying the aspirant’s experience of life, and at the same time continually analyzing every inner response to the remaining stimuli ruthlessly into its archetypal components.

In both Western and Eastern cultures, such ascetic programs have had and continue to have their value: for our sources of power are not any quality nor component of the conscious personality, but the great archetypes which are present to (not part of) the depths of the psyche. Virtue or wide experience of life, deep learning or childlike simplicity: these qualities have value to the aspiring mystic or magician insofar as, and only insofar as, they clarify our perception of, and contact with, the archetypal powers.

The archetypes with which we are here concerned are by no means all the possible archetypes which may subsist either in the collective Unconscious or in the Divine Mind. For millennia it has been recognized that there are an essential seven to which all that pertains to magical or mystical power, indeed all that pertains to human life, may be aggregated; adding to these another three, we have all that pertains to the universe both outer and inner, both cosmic and microcosmic, as seen by humankind. For, both physically and metaphysically, we can perceive only those phenomena which we have faculties to perceive. Though this be a truism, it is well worth stating because it simplifies at one stroke the task of explaining man’s direct relationship with, and correspondence to, his universe.

These ten archetypal sources of power correspond to the ten Sephiroth, the “spheres” of the Tree of Life. To apprehend any of them directly in its spiritual reality is a work of consummate adepthood: to apprehend the highest of them directly is to pass beyond the lower worlds of existence into the realm of that pure being which is a continual becoming. Happily, however, there is another way of proceeding, and it is the way which magical and mystical practices have ever followed. Each of the Sephiroth has its counterpart within each one of us: and that counterpart is also a focal point for the power of the Sephirah in question, just as that very point on a mirror which reflects the light of the sun or of a powerful lamp will project its heat also. We can, therefore, work with these coutnerparts within ourselves—and for greatest effectiveness this working involves the body as well as the psyche—so as to come at the veritable powers of the sephirothic archetypes.

To work thus, by image and by enactment, by calling forth within the self the effect which is to be produced in the outer worlds—this, from the earliest traces we can find of humankind, has been the method of priest and of magician.

The Tree of Life: The Ten Sephiroth and the Twenty-two Paths

In respect of what is to follow here, it is necessary at this point to give only a brief indication of the nature of the ten Sephirothic spheres which are shown upon our diagram of the Tree. The highest Sephirah, Kether, is the primal and unconditioned source of all the rest. It is the initial point of positive spiritual energy in our universe, the First Cause, in whatever manner one conceives of it. It is also, to the individual person, that particular Divine Flame which is at once the source and the center of one’s being. Next, and proceeding from this primal Cause, come the two great spiritual powers designated respectively as the Supernal Father—creative force in action—and the Supernal Mother—formative force in action, giving viability to, but also necessarily in some manner constricting, the energies of the Father. To the depths of the psyche, these Supernal Parents are represented by the high archetypes of Animus and Anima, lesser images of which are made manifest to the less profound levels of the personality with whatever cultural or individual bias and detail may be added.

Thus far the Supernals: they are vital to our understanding and use of the Tree as a whole, although we do no magical work directly with them. The Third Sephirah, that of the Supernal Mother, has however another and more accessible identity as the sphere of Saturn, the highest of the traditional planetary spheres. The power of the Mother, who is both dark and bright (as the Qabalists knew long before Freud discovered her ambivalence) is enthroned as it were behind the figure of Saturn who is ruler alike of primeval opulence and fecundity and of the barren rocks.

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury and Luna: these, the seven traditional luminaries of astrology, are represented by the third through the ninth Sephirothic spheres. Their qabalistic characters are not entirely identical with their astrological influences, although qabalistic and astrological understanding can usefully supplement each other: but the differences need not detain us. The general nature of each of these spheres is sufficiently well known to everyone for a beginning, and more will be made clear in the course of this book.

The tenth and lowest sphere represents this planet Earth, or, microcosmically, our physical body: in either case it is seen to be the recipient of the influences of all the other spheres.²

Our chief magical concern, then, is with the seven Sephiroth which have been designated as “planetary”: the third (in its lower aspect) through the ninth. Each of these is the source to us of a particular type of power, distinct from the others in character and in purpose. Among them these seven comprise the whole range of human life: it is noteworthy in this regard that the astrologers, exploring the significances of the “new planets” Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, have found that these can in general terms be regarded as higher octaves of functions already within the domain of one or other of the traditional seven.

As mystical or magical aspirant, therefore, you need to be able, at will, to place yourself in a state of attunement with each of these seven sephirothic sources of power: that is to say, you need to be able to induce in yourself the Magical State of Consciousness of each. Your first objective in so doing is to receive and to familiarize yourself with each, so as to individuate and strengthen the counterpart of each within the depths of your psyche. Thus you will nourish and increase your personal magical potential, and at the same time ensure the balanced progress of your spiritual development. Then, having strengthened those archetypal counterparts and enhanced your awareness of them, and having learned to attune yourself readily to the powers of the spheres, you will be able to draw upon the mighty resources of one or another of those powers, as may be required whether in magical workings or in daily life.

There are two great magical methods for achieving these states of consciousness. First, there is the art of Sphere Working. This consists of techniques of building up directly, and of magically empowering, the influences of a particular sphere, whether for the purpose simply of meditating in it and strengthening oneself thereby, or for the potent performance within that ambience of some specific working.

There is also the art of Pathworking, the subject of the present book. These two magical skills can very effectively be combined, but it is most desirable that the newcomer to them should acquire proficiency in Pathworking before any attempt is made in Sphereworking.

The reason for this can be stated simply. In building up the ambience of a Sphere, there is no great difficulty in ensuring that all components are included which are necessary for the magical reality of the experience of that Sphere. It is quite difficult, however, unless certain precautions are taken, to ensure that no additional incongruous factor has crept in, which, being an impurity, would vitiate the whole power of the operation.

As in some procedures of medieval magick, a long period of preparation might be undertaken, including the preparation of the operator who would need meanwhile to eat only foods harmonious to the sphere of the intended operation, to wear only suitable colors and to meditate only on suitable subjects, lest body or psyche unwittingly bring something alien into the ambience. Or an exhaustive and exhausting magical banishing of every influence might be performed, necessarily including, as Crowley points out, “the very one which we wish to invoke, for that force as existing in Nature is always impure.” (Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter III.) For a simple Sphereworking, such massive precautions are needless if the operator has sufficient experience, and the sensitivity which comes with such experience, to throw out anything incongruous whether it be discerned as an objective or subjective factor: it is also needless if the Sphere is reached by means of one of the related Paths of the Tree of Life, for they are designed to lead the person who experiences them from the Sphere at the head of the Path, through a traditional and consecrated preparatory influence which belongs specifically to that one Path, and thence into the integrity of the Sphere which closes that Path.

The aspirant thus gains the experience of savoring the Magical States of Consciousness of the Sephiroth in fully safeguarded conditions: and when once a Sphere has been gained and its particular quality is known, the aspirant has right of entry to it thereafter by any magical or meditative means. At the same time, there is no reason against repetition of the Pathworking experience; the Paths can never be too thoroughly known, and repetition at no matter what period thereafter will usually produce unforeseen benefits.

The importance of knowing, and of employing, the sephirothic powers in their pure state cannot be overemphasized. Just as eating pure foods and breathing pure air will work through the body to benefit the whole person, so in a more subtle but even more vital manner, nourishing the psyche by contact with the sephirothic archetypes will benefit the whole person. To realize the truth of this, apart from personal experience, perhaps the surest way is to be convinced of the antithesis: not only the mere impotent confusion of everyday life but the real damage wrought in the entire personality by a marked failure to distinguish the sephirothic archetypes.

Crowley, who gives many counsels on the need to work with pure forces, at one point gives an illustration of the reverse confusion, based on the story of an unenlightened character in Dickens’ Oliver Twist: he points out that the “spirit of the nature of Venus” and the “Martial or Saturnian spirit” which attend Bill Sykes in his course of love, hate and murder, “are not pure planetary spirits, moving in well-defined spheres … They are gross concretions of confused impulses … They are also such that the idea of murder is nowise offensive to the Spirit of Love.” (Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XVI pt. l.)

Another and even more striking example is shown by means of two drawings reproduced in one of the works of Carl Jung. Here the powers involved in confusion (in the unconscious acceptance of a particular individual) are those of the two Supernal Parents, represented in the functioning of the psyche as Animus and Anima. One of these drawings depicts two beings, mermaid and merman, who have one fish-tail by means of which they are joined back to back. Each of them looks out unhappily into vacuity, each evidently suffers from a desperate loneliness which cannot be cured so long as they are thus captive to one another. In the second drawing, their separation has been effected: each is now a complete being, and the arms of mermaid and merman are entwined about one another in a joyful embrace. It has to be realized that no matter how far distant from the conscious mind of the individual might be the events thus symbolically represented, the initial frustration and grief, and the subsequent sense of rightness, joy and fulfillment, would certainly influence the whole of the life of the person in question.

Pathworking, then, affords a sure and exact method by which the consciousness of even the beginner can be safely guided into the true experience of sphere after sphere: and it also affords an excellent psychic toner for all, even for the most experienced student of the practical Qabalah.

Here, indeed, we have a superb example of the Qabalistic system being directly and exactly brought into practical working, and being fully justified in the result. The distinctive feature of each of the Paths of the Tree of Life is the special influence which is operative upon it, additionally to the influences of the Spheres at its two ends. This special influence upon the Path can be designated in various ways, each of which opens up a new approach by which we can understand it. One such designation for each Path is a specific letter of the Hebrew alphabet, comprising its form and significance, its numeration, and even a consideration of certain Hebrew words incorporating it. Another designation is a corresponding planetary influence, zodiacal sign, or element as the case may be; while yet another is a specific card from the Major Arcana of the Tarot, again with its own character, significance and associations.

With each Path there are also associated its own colors, incenses, gemstones, symbolic beasts and plants, through the whole range of the “Qabalistic correspondences”: many of these are traditional, and carry the power of long magical usage as well as that of their intrinsic fitness, but, when once the principle is assimilated, an up-to-date innovation based on sound magical reason is preferable to the use of a traditional correspondence which has outlasted either its suitability or its practicality.

Much the same observations apply to the texts of the Pathworkings themselves. A Pathworking is, essentially, a “guided meditation” designed to lead the participants into the Magical State of Consciousness of the Sphere which is approached, so that an authentic entry into it may be effected. To achieve this, it is necessary that in the course of the working itself the participants shall become so deeply immersed in the contents of the text as to be lifted, even at that stage, into a state of consciousness somewhat altered from the everyday level. This condition is, in fact, most often attained by the majority of participants in a Pathworking; and the further transition to the state of consciousness of the goal is proportionately facilitated. Something here depends on the leadership and the magical status of the reader of the text; but the main onus rests and must rest upon the text itself.

Every valid Order of the Western Mystery Tradition possesses, or can be presumed to have possessed in the past, its own series of Pathworkings, incorporating the essential traditional concepts but suited in spirit and in detail to the teachings and perspective of the individual Order: suited, too, to the generation for which they were composed. The teachings and perspective of Aurum Solis, while in a sense undoubtedly as distinctive as any, have at the same time been marked consistently by a conscious will to embody the pure mainstream Western Mystery Tradition, from the Ogdoadic viewpoint, certainly, but without singularity and without prejudice.

Even the current of magical thought and purpose, however, veers slightly with the times; and to remain faithful to its intention of attunement to the psychic ambience, the Aurum Solis has had to make adjustments to a number of its traditional texts, those of the Paths included. There have, therefore, been revisions in these texts: but the specific character of each Path remains unchanged. Above all, nothing has been changed needlessly or for the sake of conformity with what seems to be a passing fashion: neither has there seemed any good purpose in giving a “New Age” slant to that which is deeper than the tides of the ages. It has, however, seemed to be a good opportunity for removing any traces of heaviness or rhetoric.

The planetary influence, zodiacal sign or Element attributed to a Path is often the principal factor experienced by the participant. These attributions can be at first sight surprising, but they are never irrational or arbitrary.

It is precisely by passing through the experience of this attribution that the participant is conditioned for the transition to the culminating Magical State of Consciousness, in a way which could not occur if an attempt were made simply to transfer the consciousness directly from sphere to sphere.

Some meditative reflection upon the “why” of the conditioning influences on each Path is likely to afford a deeper insight into the nature of that Path than can readily be conveyed by the printed word. However, one or two examples may indicate a fruitful approach to the subject matter.

For instance: the diagram of the Tree shows Path 14, which unites Binah to Chokmah—the sphere of the Supernal Mother to that of the Supernal Father—as carrying the symbol of the planet Venus. The Hebrew letter is Daleth, “the Door,” the Tarot Arcanum is The Empress. The significance is plainly of love, harmony, increase, and this is what we might expect. But, in the lower part of the Tree, what of Path 27 which similarly unites Hod with Netzach, the Sphere of Mercury with that of Venus, the Sphere of Magick with that of Nature? Despite the greater complexity in this part of the Tree, surely we might expect to find some almost equally harmonious influence here? But in fact, this Path 27 carries the sign of the planet Mars. The Hebrew letter is Peh, representing the mouth and tongue with a connotation of anger, and the Tarot image is The Tower Struck by Lightning. What can we learn from this?

The particular virtue of the Tower is that its inmates are thrown clear of it. An “explosion” takes place whose effects are, ultimately, altogether salubrious. Without it, the persons would be trapped in the outward shell of their situation, confused by material considerations, and incapable of attaining the Venusian peace and harmony of the resolution. From a psychological viewpoint, it is notable that the persons are flung to safety head downwards. To emphasize this circumstance, the tower itself is generally shown as being deprived of its “head,” or crown, by the lightning strike. The suggestion here is that the harmony between Hod and Netzach is not effected by the superficial personality but by the deeper levels. The entrapping tower seems to be associated with a too fixed, or too materialistic, view of life. The emotions need to find a voice, in some cases even a voice of anger, to break the domination of this outer shell.

The attributions of the Paths can also be usefully compared with one another in relation to the pattern of the Tree. Their positions in relation to each other are not random, but they form the balanced pattern of a living organism rather than any mechanical symmetry of human devising. The makers of the Tree have explored what is, not set forth a simplistic scheme of what by human standards should be.

Thus, when we compare the attribution of Path 31 (from the Earth Sphere, Malkuth, to Hod, Sphere of Mercury) with that of Path 29 (from Malkuth to Netzach, Sphere of Venus) there may at first be some surprise that while the one is elemental Fire, the other is not elemental Water but the watery zodiacal sign of The Fishes. Since Hod is an abode of Science ( among other things) and Netzach an abode of Nature, a reason for the more “animate” attribution in the approach to the latter Sphere easily presents itself. In each case, however, the Hebrew letter of the Path warns us that in moving from everyday consciousness to the mentality of the destination, a progress has to be made which may seem like a regression. On Path 31 we have Shin, “the Tooth,” the Devourer. The intending scientist and the intending magician alike must put aside that mundane possessiveness which clings to sentiments and prejudices as well as to material things: all the emotional and self-indulgent clutter of life is, on this Path, only food for the hungry tooth of Fire.

On Path 29, that of The Fishes, the Hebrew letter is Qoph, “the back of the head.” If one is to be “in the swim” with the forces of Nature, the austerely purified intellectual force which lifts one towards Hod would be completely out of place. It is of interest that the pituitary gland, situated in the midst of the brain, is concerned with such physical functions as the circulation of blood, bodily growth, and the action of giving birth: while, as a more obvious association with the image of The Fishes, the name of the pituitary gland derives from a traditional association with the “phlegmatic,” cool and stolid temperament.

To pursue our comparison of Paths, when we approach Hod and Netzach respectively from Yesod, the change in the attribution of the Path in each case is at once intelligible. We are now setting out not from the Earth Sphere, but from the Sphere of the Moon, the Sphere of imagination, even of fantasy, which rules the astral world. The approach to Hod is now by the Path, not of Shin but of Resh: not of Fire but of the Sun. Here we have not simply a passive purification and reconstitution, but also inspiration and the force of personal creativity. Similarly, in proceeding to Netzach not from Malkuth but from Yesod, we are no longer on the Path of Pisces but on that of Aquarius: no longer of passive immersion in the currents of natural life, but with an implication that we should take a creative part in the interrelationship thus established. (True “moral responsibility” does not subsist in the Paths below Tiphareth—a point which could clear up many thorny theological problems—but on this 28th Path the constraining power of the Supernal Mother is reflected with particular force.)

The present book does not cover the full range of twenty-two Paths. Intended as it is for practical use, it is limited to those Paths upon which the proposed method—that of guided meditation—is of proven, true and traditional worth in magical practice: that is to say, on that whole series of Paths, counting down from 32 through 24, which together lead the aspirant to the attainment of the Magical State of Consciousness of Tiphareth, the Sun Sphere. The opening of the consciousness of this Sphere marks so salient a point in the inner development of the individual, that a complete change of approach in the presentation of materials for the Paths above Tiphareth is customary: while, however, even mages and mystics of many years’ standing can benefit from time to time by a “refresher course” in the Paths below Tiphareth, and can always find further aspects therein for meditation.

With each of the Paths has been associated in magical tradition one of the great philosophic schools of pre-Socratic to Renaissance times: schools whose teachings are in truth timeless. So long and earnestly have the philosophers debated their claims throughout history, that plainly their differences would have been resolved long ago if they could in fact be resolved in purely philosophic terms. The real basis for these irresolvable differences (when once the mere misunderstandings, which Wittgenstein indicated, have been removed) lies not in the realm of the rational intellect but in the personal psychology of the philosophers.

The allocation of the different schools, in broad terms, to the different Paths of the Tree is therefore a valid concept, and, so far from discrediting the philosophies, it prevents their discrediting each other and gives them a new and perennial value. For, no matter what may be the personal bias of soul of each one of us, nevertheless every one of the Paths exists somewhere in our composition: and the more completely, by study and reflection, we can bring them in a balanced manner into consciousness, the more channels of communication we shall open up within ourselves and the greater measure of life, at all levels, we shall be fitted to enjoy.

For those who may wish to explore the philosophic attributions of the Paths up to Tiphareth, they are as follows:

32. Orphism: the step from the domination of the material world, into the realm of vision, symbol and mystery.

31. Stoicism, particularly the philosophy of Heraclitus.

30. Alchemy: the discipline of the psyche through the natural order.

29. Epicureanism, as Epicurus intended it.

28. Humanism: control of the natural order by enlightened human understanding.

27. Drama as katharsis: violent cults of the Mother, as that of Attis.

26. Aristotelianism, especially of the Nicomachean Ethics.

25. Mystical cults of Dionysus. The continuity of this Path from the Orphism of Path 32 has a philosophical, not a chronological significance. The intersection of Paths 27 and 25 represents that vital relationship between the cults of Dionysus and of the Mother which Euripides saw to be symbolized by the timbrel.

24. Gnostic teachings on the Great Mother. Death and rebirth as philosophic imagery may be traced back to the pre-Socratic Leucippus (the atomist), if a concept so basic to human thinking can be given an origin.

2. Each of the ten Sephiroth, considered at its highest level—in the World of Atziluth—represents an aspect of the Divine Nature itself. This does not make the Divine Nature less than infinite: only as much of it as is knowable to us is here outlined in attributes.