Post by kikyou on May 28, 2003 19:58:55 GMT -5
A Qabalah Meditation, this is alot of work, NEOPHYTES are not ready for this. Do your research and practice this before performing.
Behind the darkness of your closed eyelids, you begin to visualize the astral temple of Malkuth.
The now familiar surroundings appear and you approach the altar flame as before.
Intoning Adonai Ha-Aretz, Sandalphon, and the Ashim, you wait for your Guide to appear.
Within the swirling clouds of incense, a figure in the East can be seen. Sandalphon, tall and dark-haired, in her robes of citrine, olive, russet and black, looks at you with compassionate brown eyes. You salute her with the Sign of the Enterer and she answers with the Sign of Silence.
She speaks, "You have entered the Immeasurable Region. This place is called Thraa, the Gate. It is the Gate of Justice, the Gate of Life, and the Gate of Death. The Gate of Tears, and the Gate of Prayer. It is the Gate of the Garden of Eden and the Gate of the Daughter of the Mighty Ones. By what symbol do you enter herein?"
You answer, "By this symbol of Saturn and the symbol of Earth." You hold up the Pantacle. "I seek the Path of Tau, the Path of introspection."
Facing the Archangel across the light of the altar, you prepare for your journey into the Thirty-Second Path.
Sandalphon turns toward the East where there is a great archway of indigo stones, bearing on its keystone the letter Tau in brilliant white. Within the archway is a wooden door that had previously been obscured by the smoke from the incense. The tarot card of The Universe hangs like a veil in front of it. Sandalphon traces a cross in the air with her hand, and the veil parts. The archangel moves aside after showing the way, it is up to you to open the door. Undaunted, you approach it. Holding out the talisman of Saturn and earth, you trace with it a large letter Tau. The door slowly opens and you enter the Path of Tau.
At once, the darkness conquers you completely. You sense, rather than see, the humped shapes of fields around you, and realize that the road has dipped. Gravity pulls you forward, downward. You have neither the strength nor the will to resist.
Darkness of black velvet gapes before you, the dark of night before the birth of stars. It closes around you; feet give way - you are falling, slipping, sliding down a gulf that gulps, constricting, swallowing - senses swim, and then you come to rest on something smooth, hard as stone; or is it bone?
Blinking, you stand. Here is a tree, barren and immense, lit by a dim and source-less radiance. But where dead limbs arch, strange shaped shadows fall, fluttering fitfully, like ravens’ wings. Cold wind whips your hair, the air is whispering, or is it the scratch of gross, misshapen limbs scraping each other in agony? You cannot tell.
At the base of the tree, something gleams - dark waters bounded by an iron rim, like a great cauldron age-sunken into the ground. Curious, you bend forward; shadow swirls - a face appears, skull-white beneath dark draperies - shocked, you jerk back, looking up. A hag is crouching there, cackling at your fear. "Are you thirsty? Then drink--" she says to you. The cup she offers was once a skull. Dip, drink, swallow. It tastes sweet, like milk and honey, and suddenly you remember - the bedroom you slept in when you were a child; old songs, playmates, your first day at school, the joy of a summers day in a sweet, supple body without pain.
"Drink more --" the hag says. And you dip again, but now the stuff is salty with the iron tang of blood. Your own blood races in your veins and you remember passions of love and hate, the hot striving of flesh to flesh in sex, the strain of orgasm, victories fought with body or mind.
The hag says, "Take the cup and dip again--" but now the taste is bitterer than bile. As you swallow, the harbingers of pain twinge from limb to limb. Stiffening, you feel yourself grow weak. The waters of the cauldron still. In their dark mirror you see the face of age - your own face, wrinkled, sagging, looking back at you with lost eyes that do not understand.
The witch laughs and seizes you. Strengthless, you struggle, but her grip is sure. She thrusts you into the cauldron. Black waters close about you in the bottomless depths. You sink down, around and up and down again; the water boils and melts your flesh from the enduring bones. You scream in terror and agony.
"Toll the knell, hear my spell, time will tell what befell the bones and skull, boil them well!!" The hag chants over and over as you sink deeper into the murky, burning water. Deeper you go as the waters widen, currents flow, and the undertow takes you where the great sea rolls.
Washed by the waters, scoured clean against the sand, your bones roll onward, mixed with many things that once had life - the beggar and the king, and stony cores of shooting stars and dinosaurs - all are intermingled here.
And then, dazzling, brilliant, the lightening flares and strikes, sizzling, the waters swirl, and cell by cell, new flesh forms upon your naked bones. Buoyant, you bob upward through the warm waters, breaking through the myriad glittering ripples that sparkle, reflecting the shimmer of stars. They are like shoals of silver fish, swimming through the heavens in glimmering glory everywhere - no, there, a great shape blocks them - rising from the waters is a silhouette.
You swim to see. It changes - becomes more solid, smoother, rounded limbs, a sloping swill of breast all draped in black, and mighty thighs that form a generous lap. The figure's face is veiled.
You clasp Her feet, climb up onto Her knees, cuddle against breast and belly with a sigh. Cold stone softens, warms, grows luminous. The veil becomes translucent, glowing eyes open upon you, and the Goddess smiles. "Beyond the Crone is the Dark Mother, and everything you do is known to Me. As you sow in life, so shall you reap."
Secure in Her embrace, you watch as Time strides through the heavens, scything down the stars. They fall into the sea like dying coals, but ever and again the lightening flares and sparks new spray into the skies. Her strong hands close around you, toss you upward, whizzing, whirling, spiraling inward, downward, faster, faster still. Your senses spin, darkness conjunct with light swirls dizzily and sweeps you outward. A mighty tide surges in splendor toward an unknown shore…
You come to rest. Slowly your heartbeat stills. Sky and sea and wasteland all whirl away to memory. Your journey is at an end.
You turn to the west and retrace your steps away from the dead tree and its cauldron. A door appears before you and stepping through, you are once again in the Temple of Malkuth. The archangel Sandalphon seems relieved to see you. She seals the great wooden door behind you, and covers it with the veil of The Universe tarot card. The flame on the altar is a welcome sight after such and arduous adventure. The great fireplace, fountain, stone, censer, and oaken columns are a comforting sight. Standing before the altar, you partake of the sacred flame for a few moments before leaving the temple. Saying goodbye to Sandalphon, you salute her with the Projection Sign. She answers with the Sign of Silence.
Leave the Temple of Malkuth and open your eyes as human time begins once more.
Behind the darkness of your closed eyelids, you begin to visualize the astral temple of Malkuth.
The now familiar surroundings appear and you approach the altar flame as before.
Intoning Adonai Ha-Aretz, Sandalphon, and the Ashim, you wait for your Guide to appear.
Within the swirling clouds of incense, a figure in the East can be seen. Sandalphon, tall and dark-haired, in her robes of citrine, olive, russet and black, looks at you with compassionate brown eyes. You salute her with the Sign of the Enterer and she answers with the Sign of Silence.
She speaks, "You have entered the Immeasurable Region. This place is called Thraa, the Gate. It is the Gate of Justice, the Gate of Life, and the Gate of Death. The Gate of Tears, and the Gate of Prayer. It is the Gate of the Garden of Eden and the Gate of the Daughter of the Mighty Ones. By what symbol do you enter herein?"
You answer, "By this symbol of Saturn and the symbol of Earth." You hold up the Pantacle. "I seek the Path of Tau, the Path of introspection."
Facing the Archangel across the light of the altar, you prepare for your journey into the Thirty-Second Path.
Sandalphon turns toward the East where there is a great archway of indigo stones, bearing on its keystone the letter Tau in brilliant white. Within the archway is a wooden door that had previously been obscured by the smoke from the incense. The tarot card of The Universe hangs like a veil in front of it. Sandalphon traces a cross in the air with her hand, and the veil parts. The archangel moves aside after showing the way, it is up to you to open the door. Undaunted, you approach it. Holding out the talisman of Saturn and earth, you trace with it a large letter Tau. The door slowly opens and you enter the Path of Tau.
At once, the darkness conquers you completely. You sense, rather than see, the humped shapes of fields around you, and realize that the road has dipped. Gravity pulls you forward, downward. You have neither the strength nor the will to resist.
Darkness of black velvet gapes before you, the dark of night before the birth of stars. It closes around you; feet give way - you are falling, slipping, sliding down a gulf that gulps, constricting, swallowing - senses swim, and then you come to rest on something smooth, hard as stone; or is it bone?
Blinking, you stand. Here is a tree, barren and immense, lit by a dim and source-less radiance. But where dead limbs arch, strange shaped shadows fall, fluttering fitfully, like ravens’ wings. Cold wind whips your hair, the air is whispering, or is it the scratch of gross, misshapen limbs scraping each other in agony? You cannot tell.
At the base of the tree, something gleams - dark waters bounded by an iron rim, like a great cauldron age-sunken into the ground. Curious, you bend forward; shadow swirls - a face appears, skull-white beneath dark draperies - shocked, you jerk back, looking up. A hag is crouching there, cackling at your fear. "Are you thirsty? Then drink--" she says to you. The cup she offers was once a skull. Dip, drink, swallow. It tastes sweet, like milk and honey, and suddenly you remember - the bedroom you slept in when you were a child; old songs, playmates, your first day at school, the joy of a summers day in a sweet, supple body without pain.
"Drink more --" the hag says. And you dip again, but now the stuff is salty with the iron tang of blood. Your own blood races in your veins and you remember passions of love and hate, the hot striving of flesh to flesh in sex, the strain of orgasm, victories fought with body or mind.
The hag says, "Take the cup and dip again--" but now the taste is bitterer than bile. As you swallow, the harbingers of pain twinge from limb to limb. Stiffening, you feel yourself grow weak. The waters of the cauldron still. In their dark mirror you see the face of age - your own face, wrinkled, sagging, looking back at you with lost eyes that do not understand.
The witch laughs and seizes you. Strengthless, you struggle, but her grip is sure. She thrusts you into the cauldron. Black waters close about you in the bottomless depths. You sink down, around and up and down again; the water boils and melts your flesh from the enduring bones. You scream in terror and agony.
"Toll the knell, hear my spell, time will tell what befell the bones and skull, boil them well!!" The hag chants over and over as you sink deeper into the murky, burning water. Deeper you go as the waters widen, currents flow, and the undertow takes you where the great sea rolls.
Washed by the waters, scoured clean against the sand, your bones roll onward, mixed with many things that once had life - the beggar and the king, and stony cores of shooting stars and dinosaurs - all are intermingled here.
And then, dazzling, brilliant, the lightening flares and strikes, sizzling, the waters swirl, and cell by cell, new flesh forms upon your naked bones. Buoyant, you bob upward through the warm waters, breaking through the myriad glittering ripples that sparkle, reflecting the shimmer of stars. They are like shoals of silver fish, swimming through the heavens in glimmering glory everywhere - no, there, a great shape blocks them - rising from the waters is a silhouette.
You swim to see. It changes - becomes more solid, smoother, rounded limbs, a sloping swill of breast all draped in black, and mighty thighs that form a generous lap. The figure's face is veiled.
You clasp Her feet, climb up onto Her knees, cuddle against breast and belly with a sigh. Cold stone softens, warms, grows luminous. The veil becomes translucent, glowing eyes open upon you, and the Goddess smiles. "Beyond the Crone is the Dark Mother, and everything you do is known to Me. As you sow in life, so shall you reap."
Secure in Her embrace, you watch as Time strides through the heavens, scything down the stars. They fall into the sea like dying coals, but ever and again the lightening flares and sparks new spray into the skies. Her strong hands close around you, toss you upward, whizzing, whirling, spiraling inward, downward, faster, faster still. Your senses spin, darkness conjunct with light swirls dizzily and sweeps you outward. A mighty tide surges in splendor toward an unknown shore…
You come to rest. Slowly your heartbeat stills. Sky and sea and wasteland all whirl away to memory. Your journey is at an end.
You turn to the west and retrace your steps away from the dead tree and its cauldron. A door appears before you and stepping through, you are once again in the Temple of Malkuth. The archangel Sandalphon seems relieved to see you. She seals the great wooden door behind you, and covers it with the veil of The Universe tarot card. The flame on the altar is a welcome sight after such and arduous adventure. The great fireplace, fountain, stone, censer, and oaken columns are a comforting sight. Standing before the altar, you partake of the sacred flame for a few moments before leaving the temple. Saying goodbye to Sandalphon, you salute her with the Projection Sign. She answers with the Sign of Silence.
Leave the Temple of Malkuth and open your eyes as human time begins once more.
