MAGICAL STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS:
SECRETS OF PATHWORKING
by Osborne Phillips

MODULE 6.1

http://www.aurumsolis.co.uk
E-mail: paracletian@tiscali.co.uk

Copyright © 2002 by Leon Barcynski
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
 in any form or by any means 
without prior permission in writing of the author

MSC MODULE 6
Unit 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              THE 25th PATH

CORRESPONDENCES
Sephirah of commencement
	Greek name: Asphaleia.
	Hebrew name: Yesod. 
	English name: Foundation.
	Aurum Solis Divine Name: IAO.
	Hebrew Divine Name: SHADDAI EL CHAI.
	Planetary correspondence: The Moon.	
	Element: Air.
	Magical phenomena: Astral visions of the four elements.
Path of the Tree of Life
	Titles: The 25th Path; the Critical Intelligence.
	Aurum Solis Divine Name: ZARAIETOS.
	Hebrew Divine Name: EL.
	Philosophic attribution: Mystical cults of Dionysus. The continuity of this Path from the Orphism of Path 32 has a philosophic, not a chronological significance. 
	Influence: Sagittarius (the Archer).
	Hebrew letter: Samekh (Prop).
	Magical Image: Tarot Arcanum XIV, Temperance.
	Element of the Path: Fire.
	Magical phenomena: Divine intoxication. Visions of the Androgyne, the Eternal Child and the Lion.
Sephirah of destination
	Greek name: Kalon.
	Hebrew name: Tiphareth.
	English name: Beauty.
	Aurum Solis Divine Name: ONOPHIS.
	Hebrew Divine Name: YHVH ELOAH V’DAATH.
	Planetary correspondence: The Sun. 
	Number: 6.
	Element: Air.
	Magical phenomena: Vision of the Self-made-perfect, manifestation of the Day-Star, apotheosis of the four elements in the unity of spirit.

PRELIMINARIES
1 – The participants stand in a circle around the altar.
2 – The battery is sounded: a single stroke of bell or gavel.
3 – The director states:
	I proclaim a working of the Twenty-fifth Path of the Tree of Life!
4 – All link hands right over left.
5 – The director proclaims:
	The 25th Path is the Path of Trial, the Critical Intelligence: so named because it constitutes the principal trial set by the Creator for all those who aspire to perfection.
6 – The participants visualize a single sphere of white light above the centre of the circle. 
	This sphere grows brighter and more radiant, until the light from it encompasses all participants.
7 – The director proclaims verse XXV of The Song of Praises:
Stone of the Patriarch’s dream,
Pillow austere couching the wanderer
While between heaven and earth
Glorious shapes came and went ceaselessly:
Hail to thee, Gate of the Worlds,
Column unhewn set for memorial
Pointing the Arrow-road!
8 – All participants now visualize a wall of white light enclosing their circle and revolving anti-clockwise; then they visualize a wall of blue light, revolving clockwise about their circle and replacing the wall of white light.
9 – After a few moments, all visualization is allowed to fade from consciousness.
10 – The participants unlink hands and seat themselves. They close their eyes and breathe in a steady rhythm, evenly and quietly.
11 – The director now says:
	This is the crowning Path of the present series: the Path by which Tiphareth is to be attained, and, with that Sephirah, entrance to the World of Briah. Significantly, The 32 Paths of Wisdom calls it “the Path of Trial, the Critical Intelligence.” The Song of Praises makes reference to the traditional identification of the letter Samekh, “the prop”, with the “stone of the patriarch’s dream” and also to the straight flight of the arrow to the mark which is suggested by the zodiacal sign for the Path, Sagittarius.
	In fact the name “the Path of the Arrow” refers not only, of right, to this Path itself, but to the Paths 32, 25 and 13 taken as a single straight course. In the latter sense, “the Path of the Arrow” is traditionally understood to be the route of the dedicated mystic, passing without digression through the Gates of the Worlds to the divine consummation of the mystic’s existence in the white brilliance of Kether. Here upon the 25th Path itself we are treading only a part of that way, but reflection upon the mystic’s singleness of purpose may help us understand the nature of the “trial” of this Path.
	What has to be attained here is a major change – the major change – not only in the mode of consciousness but at the same time in the level of consciousness. A new way of looking at things has to be effected, a new and spiritually based self-responsibility has to be won: and this by a specialized use of the normal means of alterations of consciousness, that is, total absorption in an activity. The nature and direction of the Path, with its symbols, are to do the rest: to produce the “upwards fall” which is to take the aspirant through the Gate.
	Upon this 25th Path, as upon the 26th, there is a pageant of revelry: but this is Dionysian and fiery while the other was Bacchanalian and earthy. These attributions are deeply relevant. Fire, not Earth, is the element of severe testing. Bacchus is a rustic divinity, whereas Dionysus means “The Lame God”, and Jacob – he of the dream – is, by reason of his wrestling with the angel, the lame patriarch. Both these heroic figures are thus types of the Sacred King, one of the great embodiments of dedication in the Western Mystery Tradition. Here the beings whose procession joins with our progress are, like us, hastening directly forward on the uphill Path.
	Many of the entities we encounter, or see in vision, upon this Path are of dual form: the centaurs, the androgyne and others. These foreshadow for us one of the characteristics of the World of Briah, that in it the divine and the human modes of creative thought meet and mingle. Other entities, of single form – as the Lion – are symbols of solar and Tipharic power.
	In the episode of the truncated pyramid in the latter part of this Pathworking, it is made very plain that our whole progress toward the Sphere of the Sun, towards Briah, and towards adepthood, is by an ascent through the levels of our own being. Like the spider (a living eight-pointed star) we have spun from our own substance, in our evolutionary descent into matter, the very thread that is now our stairway of return. 
We set out upon this path, in Yesod, with astral visions of the four elements, the components of the world in which we live and of which our lower nature is a part. We close it in Tiphareth, with a vision of the spiritual realities underlying the four elements. That which we have left has become ours more truly: and in our continued journeys upon the Paths, with our gaze drawn ever to a newer wonder, we shall find ourselves more truly yet.  
12 – After a suitable pause for reflection, the director sounds the battery once, and makes the invocation:
	May we be encompassed by the power of the name IAO (or SHADDAI EL CHAI) and established in Yesod, the Foundation.
May the portal of the 25th Path be opened to us, and may we journey thereon in the power of the name ZARAIETOS (or EL) to the gate of the Sphere of Tiphareth, Beauty. 
And, in the name ONOPHIS (or YHVH ELOAH V’DAATH), may the gate of Tiphareth be opened to us and may we be firmly established in the wonders of that Sphere.
13 – The battery is sounded once, and the Pathworking commences.

THE WORKING OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH PATH

Oration
1
We stand in impenetrable darkness, enwrapped in a total silence. We try to see around us and above us, but there is nothing visible. We look down, and find we are standing upon a large cube of crystal, colourless and almost perfectly transparent; it would be invisible in the blackness, but for a faint glimmer of light that emanates from the rock itself. This crystal cube rests upon nothing, seeming to be suspended motionless in the void of space. We raise our heads and stand passively. The heavy darkness around us is still totally and completely silent.
	Gradually, from the darkness before us, comes the delicate breath of a gentle breeze. At first we scarcely feel it; quickly it grows stronger, caressing our cheeks and carrying the sweet refreshing fragrance of innumerable flowers. 
From behind us comes a sound of water cascading from a height. We turn to look, and there meets our sight a sheer fall of translucent water, descending as if over a towering precipice; a cataract that shows itself pale blue and gem-like against the darkness. Ever and anon a flashing trail of droplets, sparkling like a necklace of sapphires, is thrown off into space, or a sudden mist of smaller drops hangs for an instant like a veil, filled with bands of intense violet and scarlet and bright yellow light of incredible loveliness, until at once the colours shimmer and are gone. As we watch the waterfall, we see its changeful beauty reflecting a stronger and more lasting red-gold brightness than any prismatic splendour. 
We turn back to our original position and find, on our right, the manifestation of a great fire whose hot and glowing heart is open to us, surrounded on three sides by tongues of yellow flame rushing madly upwards. The roaring and crackling of the fire dispels from us the murmur of the breeze and the voice of the waterfall alike.
Expectantly we look to our left, confident that in that direction some other manifestation must meet our gaze. Nor are we disappointed. On that side there lies open a wide, smiling valley. Beyond an orchard of small trees laden with ripening fruit, we see low slopes of rich pasture land, through which runs a line of darker and denser vegetation evidently marking the course of a river. Above this peaceful scene stands a ridge of steep hills covered with forest trees; and above the hills again, edged with lines and scrolls of light like a silver filigree, rises a wall of snowy mountain peaks. Above the summit of a cone-shaped peak that overtops the rest, directly above the beautiful valley, a dense black cloud holds a glare of reflected fire; but here the reflection does not come from the leaping flames that are at our right side. This illumination is the hectic warning hue cast upwards from a raging volcanic furnace that seethes deep within the mountain.
2
	We remain for a moment surrounded by the sweet gentle wind, the waterfall, the roaring fire and the vision of Earth in which all the elements are combined; then all these manifestations together begin to fade from our consciousness, returning slowly to the silent darkness from which they came forth, as we perceive directly overhead a faint speck of light, far distant.
	We fix our attention on this new phenomenon. At a great speed it approaches, and at last it seems to increase a little in size and distinctness. Still it is directly above us, but now it loses velocity and looks as if hovering there, growing slowly larger and brighter, until we perceive it as a central white light, pulsating and brilliant, surrounded by an aura of gold. Suddenly it leaps downwards and stands before us, not resting upon the crystal: a tall flame of living white light, radiating the glorious golden aura that now appears as a long ovoid surrounding it.
	As we gaze upon this wonderful being, the golden aura begins to emit a secondary region of brightness, also golden and shining although less intensely brilliant than itself. This outer aura rapidly spreads outwards until it reaches us and encompasses us. We are surrounded with its living warmth; it pervades us, we breathe it in and feel a radiant wave of vital strength, well-being and happiness surging through us with the golden light. We feel drawn by the magnetism of joy and love to the central being of white flame, but we are not overwhelmed: the boundary of the inner ovoid of golden brilliance, within which we cannot pass, keeps us in the outer region of power. Nevertheless, the light holds us in a mighty attraction. As suddenly as it descended, the being of white flame leaps and soars upwards again; and all of us, held securely in its outer aura, feel ourselves drawn upwards from the crystal rock, soaring through space as if in the train of a living comet.   
3
	We know nothing of the course of our journey, but the mere motion is bliss. To try to reckon time would be meaningless. A sound like rushing wind sings around us, and we are moving onwards; that is all we can tell.
	As we continue our journey, the encompassing light of our guide’s outer aura fades gradually from our sight. We are moving now by our own inner impulse, and by our volition to follow the bright being who goes in advance of us in the form of a shining white flame enveloped in its own golden aura. But, since the veil of radiance that previously closed us away from the space around us has disappeared, we are also able to look above us, beneath, and to each side as we proceed; and gradually we are able to discern numbers of wondrous beings moving diagonally in front of us and all around us, some ascending towards the left, some to the right, and others descending in the contrary directions. These beings appear as having tall slender human shapes of great beauty, garmented in pale luminous tints: their swift continuous motion seems to form a network of nacreous light all about us, rose and blue and saffron. Yet never do we directly encounter these shining travellers, although sometimes a fragment of music or of chanted song reaches us as they appear to come level with us. It is as if we had impinged upon another dimension of existence. So joyful and inviting is the sight and sound that we pause in our flight, uncertain, almost tempted to leave our course and to follow after such enchanting company. Our guide, too, pauses in this moment of our decision. But no: we have chosen our guide and our way, and we realise that in changing either we could win no true benefit upon this Path.
4
	During our brief hesitation, however, the scene around us has begun to change. On all sides a mighty forest is spreading. Shafts of sunlight descend through heavy green foliage, to paint patterns of dappled gold upon the rich brown underfoot. Beneath the trees are dense thickets of fern and young saplings, climbing plants and bushes; we should hardly know there was a path through this wilderness, but for our guide going forward luminously above it. With our feet going quietly over the soft mould, we follow. The voices of birds, the hum of bees, the sound of rustling leaves, together with the warm fragrance of moss and fern and of countless tiny blossoms, give life to the summer beauty of this magical forest scene.
	Other sounds too drift to our ears as we move slowly along the faint winding track that leads us gradually uphill among the trees. From the green bowers on every hand come sudden stirrings of the leaves; and the soft and fragrant breeze carries broken snatches of speech, with the sounds of secret laughter and of candid kisses. Surely the forest is full of lovers, and of the sweet and sacred rites of love!
	Eyes that we do not see, eyes intoxicated with love watch as we pass; lips afire with kissing whisper that strangers are nearby. But when we hear the whisper we ask ourselves, How are we strangers, when this enchanted forest and all it contains are a vital part of our own nature?
	In a short time we find ourselves climbing a grassy slope beyond the wood, under an overcast sky. The leading flame goes before us as we mount steadily; we are facing into a cool wind that does not impede our progress, but that, rushing past our ears and catching at our garments, gives us the feeling that we are advancing at great speed. In fact there are no landmarks by which to measure the rate of our progress, and each one of us seems rapt into his or her inner consciousness as we mount onwards, onwards, aware only of our guide going before us, and the song of the wind flying past.
	From behind us there comes a crying and a wild chanting, with a thunder of hoofs. We are overtaken by a host of strong and gladsome beings: not as with the lovers in the forest each seeking beyond all else one other of their company, but each linked with the rest in equal love and fellowship. Here are graceful and stately nymphs, each one the Lady of a healing spring, a sacred grove or prophetic cavern. Here are fauns – beings of the nature of the rustic Pan – some who teach, at need, the arts of survival in the wilds, some who are skilled in music and in the language of all the voices of nature. Here are centaurs, in form part horse and part human, mighty in strength but skilled in the arts of peace and wisdom: healers by knowledge of herbs, musicians, watchers of the skies. With these come sphynxes, hippogriffs with eagle-like head and wings upon the body of a horse, eagle-headed genies with human body; and many more besides in which the powers of humankind are supplemented by others typified under the form of lion and eagle, horse, ox, goat and reptile. All these entities, no matter how diverse in nature, have one characteristic in common: they all represent powers of inspiration, whether these are expressed in prophecy or through the other arts of life: directing and supporting our upward strivings, helping our lower nature to form and attune itself as a true receptacle for the Light from above. All these come garlanded with flowers, and some adorned too with the lustre of massive ancient gems; and with them come human attendants, some of whom bear sistrums and rattles of every description, and singing in time with their sound. Others of the company bear each one a thyrsus, a tall festal wand made from a slender reed topped with a pinecone. With the revellers come likewise, running, prancing or flying, the beasts with which these entities have a partial affinity, drawn, with the whole procession, as if by the spirit of some great festival.
	The mighty beings that have overtaken us pause and greet us, since we are travelling the same Path. Quickly we find garlands placed upon us: we have become part of this great progress, part of its joy, and part too of its growing spirit of inspiration. The white flame of our guide goes ahead of us, and has now become the leader of the entire cavalcade. As we follow among our strange and marvellous companions, we begin to realise that they overtook us for this very purpose: to follow the wondrous being of Light who is leading us.
	Above us the sky is clearing again, and long shafts of bright sunshine strike downwards. To the right of our path rise gentle tree-covered slopes; to the left, low ridges of sandstone appear among the grass. The sky continues to clear and brighten, and the scene takes on a primeval and magical aspect.
	Among the joyful company in which we move, excitement mounts higher as the chanting and the rhythm of the sistrums becomes more insistent. We find ourselves joining in the song, uttering melodious and resonant words whose meaning is unknown to us. The sound blends with the chanting of our companions, and in raising our voices we feel exhilarated lifted above ourselves and made truly one with the mysterious festival in which we participate.
	The procession becomes ecstatic. Sometimes a great winged being that has followed its course from on high will swoop down, and with loud ringing cries and beating pinions will encircle the concourse before mounting swiftly to the skies again. Sometimes a group of fauns or centaurs, or other entities, will break from the advancing throng, leaping and gyrating in a frenzied dance of delight before returning to their companions. Sometimes a voice, deep or shrill, will overtop the rest in powerful ringing utterance of phrases that fix themselves in the memory even though their meaning is unknown.
	Now the space between the tree-grown slopes and the path widens into a circular clearing, a natural amphitheatre. Towards its far end, the being of Light who has led us here rises higher into the air and hovers there, a steady column of white flame enclosed in an aura of gold.
	The onward journey ceases. Some members of the great processional gathering still chant rapturously, while those of the revellers who bear the thyrsus lead the assembly into a joyful dance. With one accord these emblems of the festival are raised and flourished with cries of exultation, while overhead the winged beings that are part of the company reiterate these cries as they hover and soar.
	Spontaneously we are all caught up into a whirling celebration of pure cosmic gladness. Suddenly a renewed cry of delight from the thyrsus bearers causes all eyes to turn towards them; and we see – O wonder of wonders! Each slender reed, topped with its swaying pinecone, has burst into leaves that are neither of reed nor of pine. Thick clusters of vine leaves, with their sinuous stems and spiralling tendrils, gird them around; and, even as we watch, those leaves turn from green to gold and to scarlet, and among them sway heavy branches of purple grapes.
	This marvel lifts the spirits of the dancers to a frenzy. Faster and faster the throng moves, and we with it, until the surrounding scene spins and flashes, and the images and sounds of the festival, with even the presence of our guide, fade from our consciousness.
5
	We who in the beginning of this adventure stood upon the crystal cube now find ourselves in a silent and all-encompassing ambience of intense luminous blueness; and here we remain motionless, passive and watchful.
	Now a shimmering pulsation, seeming to come from afar off, sounds upon the air. Swiftly it grows louder and closer, until it is like a rapid clashing and ringing of cymbals all about us; and with it, there sweeps across us a mighty wind, rushing and crying. Scattered flames of fire are carried in the course of this intense wind, streaming, flaring, scorching, as if they were nourished upon the air itself. 
	In the midst of this tempest of wind and flame there grows before our eyes a sphere of light, pulsating powerfully within itself with no reference to the surrounding tumult. This sphere of white light hangs before us, becoming stable as a large brilliant globe within which we can perceive another form coming into manifestation.
	This form is a nude and vigorous human figure, androgynous in character. The strongly muscled legs are set astride, displaying male genitals, the penis erect. Up each leg is twined a serpent, with head turned outwards at the level of the hips. The smooth hands of the upper torso, of which the arms, shoulders, upper abdomen and breasts are distinctively female, grasp the necks of the serpents. The whole of this androgynous figure radiates its own brightness, and the head is so luminous as to be indistinguishable to us.
	Amid the clashing of cymbals, the rushing and crying of the wind, and the transient roaring of the flying flames as they pass by, this figure in its globe of light shines serenely. But now a voice is heard: a voice that may be carried to us upon the wind, or that may emanate from the visionary figure before us, or that may come from the unknown depths of our own being. In resonant and measured tones it chants strange, potent words that have the quality of a Gnostic invocation:
ZA-GOU-REH 
eCh-AB-NeTh-PhROM
BI-ATh-I-A 
BI-ATh-I-A-ChA 
LA-I-LAM
BAL-BA-OTh 
ShA-BA-O 
MeN-HOTh-PhRA 
ZA-GOU-REH
ZA-GOU-RI-EH 
I-APh-ChA-U 
ATh-UM-I-OPh 
SA-BA-ZA-I
As the chant ends, a sudden loud clap of thunder shakes the atmosphere and at the same time there flashes a momentary burst of intolerably bright light. The thunder is gone as swiftly as it came, and instantaneously we are enwrapped in silence and in the blackness of a night without moon or stars. But in that same moment we have a sure sense of rising, rising, rising swiftly upwards, as if the void had drawn us up into itself. We come to rest, waiting, passively and without question.
High up in the blackness a shining white speck shows like a star. Rapidly it descends towards us, glorious in its living light and pulsating power. The origin of this light, and the source of this power, is disclosed as a young child, crowned, but naked and luminous in beauty, standing upon a superb and equally luminous white stallion. The child carries a golden bow a single shining arrow.
Smiling, the child turns his mighty mount at some distance before us, to look up into the same unbroken black expanse at which we gaze. Deliberately he fits the arrow to his bow, takes aim and releases it upwards into the viewless night.
The arrow leaps forth at an immeasurable speed. We can trace its course, for as it flashes to the heights it leaves behind it a searing line of light: a light that cleaves asunder the universe of darkness it traverses. For a long moment this edge of burning brilliance hangs unchanged. Then an explosive electric crackling echoes across the sky, and along that line the blackness is riven asunder, to be swept away by the prismatic effulgence that bursts through and floods the dark void with its light.
With the explosion, horse and rider are gone from our perception. In a world overbrimming suddenly with radiance we are borne aloft to a new height, while as we ascend we hear again the chant that is like a Gnostic invocation:
ZA-GOU-REH 
eCh-AB-NeTh-PhROM
BI-ATh-I-A 
BI-ATh-I-A-ChA 
LA-I-LAM
BAL-BA-OTh 
ShA-BA-O 
MeN-HOTh-PhRA 
ZA-GOU-REH
ZA-GOU-RI-EH 
I-APh-ChA-U 
ATh-UM-I-OPh 
SA-BA-ZA-I
	We come to rest amid the splendours of this world of light. With no determinate shapes to meet the eye, and no distinctions of earth or of heaven, this region is yet filled with movement: the movement of continually changeful masses of prismatic colour, undefined as to shape and contour. Each of these masses flashes with a distinctive range of colours, which however changes with every movement. We watch one such mass of colour change from predominating hues of deep gold and brilliant rose, to predominating hues of vivid sapphire and fiery orange, while flashes of emerald green, clear yellow and scarlet pass fleetingly across its surface. Then from no visible cause, a section of orange light detaches itself from this mass and moves away, changing meanwhile to blue-violet flashing with rays of golden green, and unites itself with another mass of light which until that moment was predominantly crimson. Next, across the whole visible scene broad bands of varying shades of blue spread and mingle vibrantly with the other colours.   
	Suddenly these random movements of abstract colour cease to hold our attention as a living, recognisable form appears in their midst. Even more luminous than the prismatic radiance, a majestic and magnificent lion stands before us: a being formed of pure, golden light. Flakes of pale golden light shimmer from his heavy mane and from his slowly swaying tail. With eyes of red-gold fire he looks about him, then he opens his golden jaws and emits a vibrant and tremendous roaring. We feel rather than hear the first thunderous reverberations of that sound.
	The lion roars a second time. And now we can see his utterance in the form of golden flame issuing from his vermilion mouth in swirling gusts, and as golden flame echoed back from every quarter of this world of light.
	A third time the golden lion roars, and this time so mightily that his whole form quivers, loses definition, and vanishes in the vibration. From the centre where the lion had been, great waves of golden radiance reverberate outwards. The masses of prismatic colour receive it, and all in turn are changed to flashing and vibrating golden light. The expanding waves strike us also: we feel their vibration as we felt that of the lion’s first roaring, but far more violently. The vital golden light, the power and majesty of the lion, sweep through us and flood our whole being while once again the chanted invocation sounds in our ears:
ZA-GOU-REH 
eCh-AB-NeTh-PhROM
BI-ATh-I-A 
BI-ATh-I-A-ChA 
LA-I-LAM
BAL-BA-OTh 
ShA-BA-O 
MeN-HOTh-PhRA 
ZA-GOU-REH
ZA-GOU-RI-EH 
I-APh-ChA-U 
ATh-UM-I-OPh 
SA-BA-ZA-I 
6
	We float in the all-pervading glowing light, which slowly changes around us to the hot whiteness of a noonday in high summer. The sun, masked in a blaze of incandescence, looks down from its zenith.
	Now at this height we look again for our guide. There before and above us the white column of flame, surrounded by its golden aura, hovers poised in the shimmering air. We await the direction of this luminous form; but a greater wonder comes to pass.
	Before our eyes, our guide changes in aspect. We behold the white flame transformed into a glorious personage of angelic beauty and power. We see a tall figure that gives an impression of great strength and of youth, clad in a robe of brilliant blue belted with gold. On the breast of this glorious being is a huge gem, like an amethyst, deep violet in colour, which continually gives forth flashing beams of intense blue and scarlet light. The feet are bare, but the hands are adorned with jewels that flash and sparkle with every hue. The head is most radiant, shining with golden hair and crowned with a garland of deep red roses. The aura of golden light still encompasses this being, but it shines even more brightly than before.
	Scarcely have we perceived this sublime transformation when our guide ascends, higher and ever higher, and we find ourselves likewise lifted up and up towards the sun, into the dazzling heavens. Nothing has reality for us at this time save the presence of our guide, and the sense of rising towards the sun; we have been transported beyond every care.
	The light and heat of the sun become intense, and our skin tingles and burns, but in the bliss of our ascent we pay no heed to this. We feel our garments being stripped away as if they were shrivelled to nothing by the ardent rays, into whose power we are rising more and more swiftly. Those rays do not only burn, they seem to penetrate our flesh, slowly but steadily devouring all that gives us weight and density. We are being refined and transmuted in a crucible of air. We feel more than naked: we feel transparent and then invisible, consumed, without substance. We are aware at last of no feeling save for a great sense of freedom, and a joy which seems to be centred outside of ourselves: a joy which becomes forgetful of self as we keep our gaze upon the ever mounting, ever brightening form of our guide.
	Surely the sun is drawing us upwards to itself! 
	Our consciousness almost merged into the clear air that surrounds us, we ascend swiftly and more swiftly yet. 
	Suddenly, while still we rise upwards, the shining figure of our guide flashes to a dazzling, incandescent brilliance and, together with its golden aura, is gone from our sight. Our ascent continues without pause, directly upwards towards the sun. To that we aspire, to that we will mount up!
	Upwards and upwards we proceed, perceiving no obstacle between our goal and ourselves, until all at once our flight is halted. We are free no longer. It is as if the force of light and heat had been condensed into a massive crushing weight, pressing upon us from all directions. Held up as we are at this height, we are helpless in its grip: we have no power of resistance, no way of escape. The pressure increases beyond endurance, while at the same time a screaming and jangling tumult tortures our ears. We feel as if we shall be annihilated. Then, just as suddenly, with a blinding flash, the pressure and the tumult are gone, and we are caught up into a supreme and imageless brilliance.
7
	In this brilliance there is a feeling of untroubled and peaceful suspension, a quiescence that seems like a complete absence of movement but for a sense of slowly turning upon a vertical axis. 
Now, even more gradually, an awareness of surroundings begins to return. The sense of turning ceases, and out of the brilliance is formulated, little by little, the interior of a temple that seems at first to be constructed of shafts of sunlight. 
In this temple you are standing entirely alone.
As your perceptions become more distinct, you see that except for the eastern wall, which is facing you, the entire temple – roof, walls and floor – appears to be composed of crystalline golden topaz which sparkles with inclusions of metallic silver. The eastern wall has a quality which is not easy to determine: it shimmers like a silvery mist, at some moments seeming thin and vaporous, at other moments opaque and palpable, but changing continually as if it were barely existing in the same dimension of being as the rest.
The temple is cubic in form, with its roof rising overhead in the shape of a pyramid. You are standing between the two pillars, the black and the white, which are situated to the west of centre. From the apex of the roof is suspended the Lamp of the Mysteries, hanging above and just before you. In the centre of the floor and exactly below the lamp, inlaid in the sparkling topaz surface is a small equal-armed cross of gold, enclosed in an indigo octagon. This in turn is surrounded by the interlaced eightfold star of the Ogdoadic Mysteries, in silver, the nearest points of which extend to within a pace of your feet. The temple is filled with a sweet aromatic odour, a fragrance of roses and of frankincense.
Having contemplated this scene, you move forward into the very centre of the temple. Now the Lamp of the Mysteries hangs directly above your head, and beneath your feet is the golden equal-armed cross at the centre of the eightfold star. The light of the lamp surrounds you, bathes you, permeates you. It grows continually brighter, filling your consciousness although you do not gaze directly up at it.
You turn your attention to the mysterious eastern wall of this temple. As the light from the lamp grows progressively brighter, so your perception of that wall becomes more distinct: slowly the misty, changeful surface settles and resolves itself into a clear, silvery mirror.
You see your own reflection in this mirror: standing in the midst of the Glorious Star of Regeneration, with the Lamp of the Mysteries above your head and the radiance of the lamp illumining you, transforming you. You recognise your own features and form, but the light of the Lamp of the Mysteries sheds not only an outward brightness upon you. Its brilliance seems to irradiate you from within, giving your whole appearance a gentle incandescence that is expressive of spiritual beauty and strength. You see yourself, not as you are now, but yet as most truly yourself: yourself made perfect, timeless and serene in the power and the unity of your Higher Self. This transformed reflection is clothed in garments of splendour which give further expression to your inmost being, enhancing in grace and grandeur the luminous manifestation of your perfected reality.
Still the lamp above your head increases in brilliancy. You perceive its growing light reflected in the mirror, for a time showing the ideal image of yourself in more and ever more marvellous clarity and excellence. Then the glorious reflection gradually becomes merged in the dazzling silvery whiteness that engulfs it; and as the intensity of the light still increases, the details of the mirror and of the temple itself cease to be distinguishable. At last, just when the unmitigated dazzling brilliance is becoming intolerable, this too begins gradually to diminish, and a further formulation presents itself to you. 
8
	You are no longer within the temple of topaz. You are standing alone at the centre of a square, facing the midpoint of one of the sides. Your bare feet are resting upon the surface, which is of smooth rock, warmed by the heat of the sun, translucent and golden-amber in colour. Without leaving the centre you turn about, coming back to your original position. Beyond the edges of the square, in whichever direction you look, you see only the sky: a sky covered with a thin veil of mist which is filled with sunlight, so that the effect is like mother of pearl, luminous, flooded with delicate changeful tints which slowly, endlessly gleam and swirl. No sound is heard: the platform of rock upon which you stand might be floating, suspended in space.
	You are conscious of great peace and of great power.
	You stand at a centre of equilibrium, but it is a dynamic equilibrium of magical action, not a static harmony.
	You look upwards. Directly over your head, a small circular area of light is more brilliant and more constant than any in the rest of the sky. Conscious of its presence, you again align yourself to gaze across the midpoint of the side of the square, and, standing thus, you steadily raise your arms at your sides until they form a straight line level with your shoulders. You stretch out your hands, feeling the balance of forces at whose centre you are.
	Instantly, from the luminous point above you, a shaft of white brilliance darts down, through the crown of your head, filling your brow centre with light, and your throat centre with a great impulse of understanding, and descending in that same flash to your heart centre. A great radiance illuminates your heart centre, so that a beam of light darts forth along each of your arms, and also from the centre of breast and of back at the level of your heart. Thus you remain, with the vertical shaft of light from the zenith above your head to the heart centre, and with the equal-armed cross of light, at whose centre you are, reaching out to the horizon across the four sides of the square. A wonderful feeling of inspiration, comprehension and cosmic love fills your heart, pulses through you and radiates from you through those horizontal beams of light.
 	As you stand thus, your consciousness is expanded. Your feet remain firmly grounded at the centre of the square, but your perception extends further and further in every direction, your inner faculties awakened, vibrant and active in the light that streams through you and goes forth from your heart centre.
	With your heightened perception, you realise that the square platform upon which you stand is the summit of a truncated pyramid. From the base of this pyramid, far below you, at each of the four corners a river of light pours forth, clearly visible from its brightness although the details of the ground are lost in mist.
	Seen from above, these four rivers form part of an eight-rayed solar star, a living model of the Glorious Star of Regeneration: since you yourself, with the four beams of light which go out from you supply the rays of the quarters, and the four rivers carry powers of life, understanding, inspiration and aspiration to the four half-quarters of the universe.
	However, the vertical shaft of light from the zenith no longer halts its course at your heart centre. You now become aware of it descending completely through you. Your two arms, your breast and back, still give forth their vital rays which have their sources with this shaft of light, but now your sex centre and the centre at your feet are irradiated as the mighty shaft of light descends through them into the pyramid itself. Your sex centre awakens to awareness and vitality in the presence of this shaft of light; your feet renew and intensify their sensitivity to the surface beneath them. The translucent golden-amber rock glows more warmly, and you sense a pulsating force ascending from within it, whose rhythm answers to the beating of your heart.
	Your sex centre is immersed in this rising power, and glows and pulsates in response to it. From that centre, a rhythmic tension swiftly spreads through your consciousness.
	Suddenly from the sex centre a current of immense power darts upwards into your heart centre, so that the heart centre is instantly suffused with molten golden fire.  The descending shaft and the four beams of light now fade from your consciousness as this glowing radiance expands outwards from the heart centre, becoming an aura of intense golden light completely encompassing you. You stand with your feet firmly upon the pyramid; you are strongly aware of your radiant golden aura, now vastly expanded, and of yourself within it as a being of life, of joy and of ecstasy. In this rapture you love, but you do not define any object of your love for there is no existence you would exclude from it.
9
	Blissfully you raise your arms above your head, your hands separated by rather more than the width of your shoulders, the palms open and facing forwards. You feel yourself to be transfigured in the radiance, effulgent, and realising the perfection of your human nature. 
	In the void above and around you, beyond your powers of sight and hearing, you are yet conscious of mighty spiritual presences that hover there: Watchers and Holy Ones and Elder Brothers and Sisters in the Great Work.
	Of your own free will and choice, in the abundance of that love which goes forth from you with the golden light of your aura, you purpose to give form to your universe.
	To the east before you, by an act of will you invoke into being in that quarter the pure nature of elemental Fire. 
This is the most magical of the elements, for its very nature is to set apart and to transmute. You call it forth to burst into being from an infinitesimal grain of intense heat. Like a germinating seed, from the first instant of its intelligible identity it draws upon the unconditioned ethers around it, transforming them into that resplendent yet austere beauty which is itself. You bid it to dance in its naked magnificence, so that proud and invincible presences find their fulfilment therein; iridescent metallic wings and armoured limbs flash forth reflections of the burning light, scarlet, gold or blue, and exultant voices ring out in clamorous chorus to the void. 
You contemplate the triumphant glory of elemental Fire, and within yourself you find responsive powers of enthusiasm, of assimilation and transmutation, and of ecstasy.
With hands still upraised you turn to the south, and by an act of will you invoke into being in that quarter the pure nature of elemental Earth. 
This is the most peaceful of all the elements, for in tranquillity and silence the great works of Earth are performed. Far in the depths of earth, you formulate dark and hidden caverns. Mighty and indomitable presences, ponderous but shadowy of form, move therein; with slow finger they trace out the unmoving streams of metallic rock, and with patient eyes they watch for centuries the delicate growth of stalactite and stalagmite in inaccessible chambers and galleries. Above ground you formulate fertile plains and valleys, with their teeming richness of plant and animal life. Here other beings of elemental Earth touch your consciousness, with an impression of swift-moving, slender limbs and delicate mouths: with a caress or a breath enhancing the scattered harvests of the wilderness, with evanescent silver laughter rejoicing in the keenest moments of life’s multiform gladness. Now you call forth visually the high mountain peaks, which seem to rest in perpetual meditation; and here sublime beings of elemental Earth gather in silent and viewless session. Yet still they make their presence known alike to those who mount the steeps, and to those who meditate their awesome beauty from afar. 
You contemplate the strength and stability of the great forces of cavern, plain and mountain, united in the character of Earth; and you find within yourself like powers of constancy and of unconquerable resolve, and of that generosity which is born of the sure knowledge of your own inner abundance.
	With hands still upraised you turn towards the west. By an act of will you invoke into being in that quarter the pure nature of elemental Air.
	This is the most mystical of all the elements, for it is the breath that sustains life, and the means of all utterance. Its blue mantle of protection is ever about us, and to it belongs every soaring flight, every aspiration. You summon the marvel of its immeasurable distances; and in them move glorious beings. These you discern riding the winds or floating in stillness, with plumed wings and vaporous garments of radiant whiteness, of saffron and of purple. Yet you see them without dimension, in a perspective which fluctuates: now small as flying figures graven upon a cameo, now vast of countenance as the spread of dawn or sunset. 	
As you contemplate them, a soft wind breathes upon you carrying a sweet, ethereal but invigorating fragrance. With a new intensity of awareness, you find within yourself the freedom that belongs inseparably to the realms of spirit, the sense of eternity and infinity that transcends all limitations.
With hands still upraised you turn to the north, and in that quarter by an act of will you invoke into being the pure nature of elemental Water. 
This is the most powerfully transmissive of all the elements, for it carries all influences and nurtures them to fruition. You summon before you the fluid curtain of the waterfall, and the fragile rainbow that quivers in its rising spray. You call forth the shining expanses of lakes and rivers, and, beyond all these, the illimitable vistas of the ocean. You call into reality those powerful and tremendous waters, with billows rising to tips of diamond, foaming and sinking to deeps of emerald and violet translucency. And in all these worlds of waters – in lake and river, in waterfall and mighty ocean – there gleam into manifestation ever and anon a host of graceful and ethereal forms, fluid as their native element, here rushing together in a rapture of seemingly everlasting union, there individuating, separating, realising new inner vortices of identity, exulting in the bliss of selfhood until a new current carries them into even more joyful reunion. 
As you contemplate these beauteous beings of elemental Water, you can recognise within your own nature these two equally vital tides: the impulse towards union with other beings, which produces a higher level of individuation, and the impulse towards individuation which produces a more spiritually fruitful power of union.
With hands still upraised you turn again to face the east, completing the circle of this creative act of will. You lower your hands and cross them upon your breast, right over left. The harmony of rejoicing throughout all the worlds of your universe, of which you yourself are the directing power and the focal centre, sounds triumphantly about you and within you.
Gradually the sounds blend into a single chord, sonorous and thrilling, while the forms and colours of your vision are mingled into an abstract swirling of prismatic light.  Gently the sound fades to quietness and ceases, while the swirling of prismatic light changes to a dazzling whiteness. Now the brightness fades and the light formulates itself again into the temple of golden topaz, sparkling with points of bright silver. 
You become aware once more of the blended odour of roses and frankincense. Above you hangs the Lamp of the Mysteries, beneath your feet is the golden equal-armed cross at the centre of the eight-pointed star. You look before you, to the eastern wall of the temple: it has become once more as you first saw it, a shimmering luminous veil of silver mist. 
You salute the east.

Peroration
	Most happily you stand in this place of Light to which you have travelled by the Path of the Arrow.
	In this adventure you have tasted that high and joyous ecstasy of abandon to the Powers of Light, which transcends rationality but in no way sets aside reason; even as you have seen the vine, emblem of mystical rapture, burst forth from and entwine the thyrsus of nature’s jubilation, to support and be supported by it.
	You have seen the indomitable force of this ecstatic transcendence shown forth in vision: first, as a glorious and triumphant androgynous figure grasping and controlling the twin serpents which represent the two sides of the Tree of Life. This figure is seen as androgynous because dominion over the forces of nature must imply an inner equilibrium, a potent acceptance of both polarities and thus the ability to work with them.
	In vision you have seen darkness rent asunder by the power of the Eternal Child, that you might be lifted upward in the ensuing deluge of Light; since not by its own power is the adult intellect carried into the realm of the Good, the Beautiful and the True. And, once again, you have seen in vision the golden Lion, symbol of the sun – and of your Higher Self, of which the sun likewise is a symbol – and you have experienced the tremendous radiating vibration of that manifestation, flooding through you and awakening its counterpart in the depths of your psyche.
	You have entered the shining temple of the Sphere of the Sun. You have stood upon the equal-armed cross, where you were, as you are ever to be, the dedicated focal point where the things of the lower words are employed to create a means of encounter with the forces of the higher worlds. You have looked into the mystical mirror, and have beheld yourself supremely transfigured by becoming a channel and an instrument for the glorious power and action of your Higher Self.
	You have stood upon the square top of the truncated pyramid: the completion of nature, or of your lower self, by the dominion of Spirit.
	Visualize the truncated pyramid as seen from above. If opened from the base upwards, along the juncture of its four oblique faces, and laid flat, it would form a cross pattée with a central square covering the union of its arms. See this central square as occupied by a large, brilliant yellow topaz that reflects and radiates the light of the sun in every direction. Here, therefore, you have an image of the cross of the four elements governed by the fifth element, Light, or Spirit of which Light is the symbol. As you envision this jewel, the cross with the central topaz, recognise it as a showing of the destiny of your entire being.
	For what is betokened here is not an emancipation of the higher nature, so that it might cast off the lower nature and return alone to its native heights of divinity; nor is it a glorification of the lower nature alone and in its own right. What is in question is the fulfilment of the total unity of your being, a unity to be infused and governed by the glorious presence of indwelling divinity which is at once the inmost flame and the apex of your total individuality. 

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